Chapter Four-Hundred Seventy-One |
Luckily for me, they don’t tempt me to listen in by talking about their actual gameplans in the war room. My ravenkin are a bit disappointed, as they were setting up in shortcuts to try to get some intel, but the meeting is pretty brief after their dramatic exit.
Their plan for organization is to just have everyone head to one of the two guilds for what will effectively be orientation. They’re going to be sharing teams between the two, and everyone will be working together, but they physically won’t all fit in just one guild hall, so they’re splitting that part up.
It’s looking like we’re going to have a good hundred groups running around, and though they’re all technically on the same side, it’ll be the individual teams that get the credit for each key, and thus the bragging rights. They talk a little about the logistics, but mostly gloss over it, probably so I can’t listen in on that. I think they’ve come to understand how important logistics and support are, after seeing me fight.
It sounds like there’s going to be basically a couple crafters for each group, at least one adventurer sort from each enclave, as well as the adventurers in the guilds. However, instead of having everyone head in with huge groups, the plan is to have them basically work in shifts, with each team having part of their group actively delving while the rest either recover or work on processing materials and crafting.
It takes them a few days to get everyone organized. It’s a lot more complicated than lining the whole class up to pick teams for dodgeball, after all. But it’s obvious when they get started.
I had actually expected them to mostly focus on me, but Violet, Hullbreak, and even the Southwood clearly have some of the mixed groups delving. Violet is excited, and I don’t need Onyx around to translate that part. The new mana potions are making her all excited, like giving a kid a bunch of soda and candy. I gently guide her toward storing most of her mana gains in the ally pool, but I can’t begrudge her spending some of it on a few upgrades.
She boosts her bunny nodes, because of course she does, and also spends some on her centipede spawner. She doesn’t get the next tier just yet, but she’s close. It looks like Staiven wasn’t kidding about putting out some quests for venom, too, as both her centipedes and my widows are being actively hunted by the eager delvers.
Hullbreak is wary of the potions, but he’s smart enough to know it was coming. While he’s still tense, especially once some of his own merfolk get ahold of the potions, he’s holding together well. I give the ally bond with him a supportive squeeze on the shoulder, knowing he’s got this. The tension eases only a little, but that’s fine. One step at a time.
Southwood is handling the influx of delvers like a champ. While his combat encounters are still on the easy and simple side, it’s still a good way for some of the weaker teams to learn how to coordinate, and Southwood’s resource nodes are bountiful. It’ll be interesting to see how the different tactics play out. Some are trying to hit the delving ground running, hoping to build levels and skill quickly and stay ahead, while others are clearly looking to take the time to build a solid foundation with their tactics and new gear, before tackling harder fights.
My strong denizens ignore my dwellers if they’re too weak to do much. If they get ignored, they don’t get credit, so they don’t get experience. I think it’s also why the groups with a stronger delver that are going through the weaker areas are still getting experience, because the strong is mostly ignoring the weak. I don’t exactly get to see the points being allocated, but the results are pretty easy to see.
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It’s also easy to see my dwellers levelling and having a blast while doing it. They’ve all been training in their various ways, with some of them even getting to go out and hunt in the wilds beneath the ground, but there’s clearly a difference between that and actual delving.
It’s also cool to see the kinds of classes my dwellers have settled into. My ratkin have a lot of archers, with them making the compound bows and all. The easier areas are good for archery, with some good vision lines and room to maneuver. The tunnels are more difficult for them, but a lot of ratkin also like to use short swords, or long knives, of various styles. Some go hiltless and like to throw them, some look a lot like a wakizashi or gladius, some go for a more classic stabbin’ knife with a hilt, and so on.
The spiderkin mostly specialize along their type, with the tarantulakin liking large two-handed weapons. Those that don’t, will either go for a tower shield and a short (for them) sword, or the classic trident and net. Folarn is even joining in, eager to use her huge axe to test herself against my denizens for real. The jumping spiderkin almost all use the short spears with swappable heads, and either throw them or harass with hit and move tactics. There’s a few that like to stay on the frontline, including one in full plate with a warhammer, but she’s definitely the exception to the rule.
The orbweaverkin are mostly on crafting duty, but a few have learned how to work a knife tied to some thread. It makes me wonder if any of them could do the whole nanowire thing. Tempting to suggest, but it’s one of those styles that could easily have someone dice themselves or their friends up if they don’t know exactly what they’re doing. Aside from flying knives, a few are also focusing on controlling the field with webs and silken ropes. It’s weird to see a dainty spiderkin slinging a lasso, but she definitely knows what she’s doing. Hopefully others will pick it up, too. Entangling a foe is a great way to give a friend an opening.
The antkin are the most varied, thanks to their wide variety of castes. The medics are almost exclusively support and heals, though a few are using their anatomical knowledge and deft hands to guide daggers exactly where they shouldn’t go. The alchemists and enchanters are also mostly on support, but with explosive potions and engraved wands, they can do a lot more than just sit back and watch in a fight. The engineer caste is pretty evenly split between fighting, support, and crafting. I mean, they basically all craft, it just comes down to if they do the fielding testing themselves, I guess.
The rancher caste is almost all set for fighting, though some bring along their favorite critter as backup. The large antkin also like large weapons, and more than a few go completely unarmed! I actually watch those ones longer than the others, partially because so few delvers go without weapons. Some of the antkin are clearly learning from watching Rocky, while others make me wonder if they’ve seen Pul in action. They don’t have the grace the young changeling does, but they have the raw strength to make up for it, as well as their various tames to help out.
I think my favorite has to be the boxer with the cobra tame. The two just work in great conjunction together to strike at their foe’s weaknesses. They’re actually having difficulty integrating the other delvers in their group, but that’s what this is all for. Sure, they can all hold their own up to a point, but the guild adventurers have been doing this for a living. It’s good to see the myriad little lessons my dwellers have to learn, all the pieces of hard-earned experience the adventurers have to pass on that have nothing to do with numbers going up. A few of those lessons are learned harder than others, with Grim needing to step in quite a few times.
Whenever he makes an appearance, everyone stops and looks chastised, even with him hardly having to even look at them. They know what him being there means, and most groups head out to take a hard look at what they were doing, and how to avoid it in a real fight.
A few times, the people are even surprised when he shows up, as things seem to be going perfectly fine. Then he just points up to the circling ravenkin before leaving. I’m pretty sure they weren’t actually preparing anything that would kill anyone, and Grim is more reminding them that there are more dangers than just the obvious fights.
I’m sure they’ll remember that when they start getting into the labyrinth and the forest. They’d better, or they’re not getting those keys any time soon.
