Between a Rock and a Carapace

69. Strategising

Granin and I discuss a few things before we get down to the nitty-gritty. For the most part, I want to learn about his people and what makes them tick. He’s guarded about some things and quite forthcoming about others. For instance, he’s quite happy to tell me why he’s on the outs with his cult and the Shapers in general. Supposedly, there’s been quite a lot of moving and shaking going on within the Cult of the Worm lately. Recruitment has picked up over the last fifty years, and the cult has risen to a level of prominence that it hasn’t enjoyed at any point in its history.

This influx of people, ideas, and energy was always going to cause friction. Granin fell into the ‘steady and cautious’ camp, the group who wanted to consolidate their gains and take a measured approach, as they always had in the past. Being cautious is never a bad idea for a cult that isn’t supposed to exist in the first place, I suppose. At least until he found that the ground changed under their feet too quickly, as the ‘reckless moron camp’—Granin’s words—pushed harder than expected and seized control of the leadership.

[Those stupid idiots are so willing to risk what has been built by painstaking effort in the shadows,] Granin bemoans bitterly. [What utterly kills me the most, is that it’s people like me out in the field, loyal to the cause and dedicated, the bedrock of this cult, that get sent out and sacrificed on poorly thought out and badly researched tasks. The mission to capture you is a perfect example of their ineptitude! No proper planning, no backup strategy, no thought of having full control of the delving party. And you can attest to how that nearly wound up—a disaster, that’s how! Back in the day, we observed, made gradual contact, felt out the situation in order to get a sense of it. There sure as hell wouldn’t have been any warriors involved! Bloody meatheads.]

A constant refrain in Granin’s whining is how much the Shapers and Warriors don’t get along.

[Tell me a story here, Granin. Why is it that your entire society glorifies the Warriors and takes a dump on the Shapers? Seems odd to me. Magic is both awesome and rad. Things like that gateway are only possible because of magic, so why the hate?]

Granin considers the implications—not wanting to give me too much information I can use against him. He’s been giving enough that I feel satisfied he’s working with me, though. I’m happy to take the trade. Getting something out of my questions is much, much better than nothing.

[It goes back to the Cataclysm,] he finally relents. [Back then, the Mana started to rise to unprecedented levels, and every society on the surface experienced a magic revolution. Mages were more powerful than they’d ever been before, or ever since. They created miracles in that time which elevated the craft to unprecedented heights.]

[But then came the monsters,] I guess.

[Quite right. The Dungeon opened up, and the world was destroyed. We golgari were a martial people to begin with. Our natural Skills and racial bonuses push us in that direction quite naturally. We’re large, as you have no doubt noticed. I myself am not even that tall—the biggest of us can get up to ten feet, heavily built, and our true skin provides us with a strong defence without having to invest in armour, allowing our fighters to focus on weapon Skills more than other races. Since the rise of the Shapers was immediately followed by the Rending, the people lay the blame at the Shapers’ feet for bringing the Dungeon upon the world, and we’ve been scorned ever since.]

[But that’s stupid!] I protest. [The Mana rose due to the Dungeon reaching the surface, not the other way round! Surely, they know that!]

[They probably do, but do they care? No. It fits the narrative they want to believe, that’s all that matters. Ever since then, the Warrior’s Circle has been dominant in golgari society and the Shapers have been suppressed. I believe the Shapers as a whole have been pushed to the breaking point lately, which is why the cult was able to bring so many into the fold.]

It’s an interesting situation, one I can’t help but muse over. In my mind, the golgari empire occupies a vast amount of Dungeon territory, no doubt connected by these Gates. Without the Shapers, the whole thing would fall into a heap in mere days. Without the gates, the individual cities and outposts would need to travel between each other in order to communicate and share supplies, risking the Dungeon for days or weeks at a time to send the simplest message. Impossible, surely?

Not to mention, this kind of setup will be perfect for the colony! Satellite colonies, connected by magical gateways, would allow us to cover more ground with fewer numbers. That’ll become critical since we need to ensure we farm the Dungeon carefully. Spawn points are closely associated with monster population, if we strip the tunnels bare of monsters in our greed, then the spawn points will dry up, leading to less monsters overall and a dramatic reduction in the XP intake of the colony. We have to be smart about this and farm the right amount. Not too much, not too little.

To make this successful, we need to cover more territory. How to cover more territory without clearing out the Dungeon? Gates!

GAH! My heart is on fire! If I can learn the secret of these Gates, then the colony will have a limitless future! I must uncover the secret!

[So, Granin, tell me how the Gates work?]

[Not a chance.]

DAMMIT.

[I honestly don’t know why you would even want to learn about that. Who are you going to use it with? Besides, we’ve spent enough time on these side issues. We need to get focused on how to prep you for your first fight.]

[Fine.]

I’ll wait, but don’t you dare think I won’t keep working on this!

Granin leaned in. [Do you mind if I have a quick peek at your core?]

[Not a chance.]

Granin rubs his stony temple. [I had a feeling that might be the case.]

Poor guy must deal with a lot of headaches. As if I’m going to let him use a core manipulation Skill on me! He’d be mad to think I’d agree!

[We shall have to do this the old-fashioned way,] he grumbles. [Can you tell me what the focus of your build is?]

[Build what?]

[Please tell me you’re kidding. Your build—the focus of your Skills and mutations?]

[Oh! You mean like, what am I aiming for with my stats and stuff?]

[Correct. What’s your focus? Where are you putting in the most effort?]

[Yeah. I’m a bit of an all-rounder, I suppose.]

I mean, it’s better to cover all the bases, right? Oh, Granin’s rubbing his temples again.

[Patience… I must employ patience… Look, usually it’s more beneficial to have a general focus for your build, a specific set of Skills and mutations you stack up to become as strong as possible, then you flavour around the edges. It’s about building synergy. Do you know what synergy is?]

[Like a… related thing or opposition?]

[No, that’s syzygy.]

[Then no.]

[It’s when two or more things work together to produce an effect more powerful than the sum of its parts. Imagine a lightning monster. It develops a Lightning Mana Gland which gives it access to free, premade Lightning Mana. Then let’s say it takes a teeth mutation that lowers lightning resistance. In this way, when it bites something, its lightning becomes more effective. A basic example, but that’s synergy.]

[I think I get it.]

[Good, excellent. The same principle can be done with Skills. There are Skills that support other Skills, as well as Skills that can work together with mutations. For example, think about that teeth mutation of the lightning monster, they could take the Skill Curse Infliction, which would make applying a curse through their bite easier, further lowering the resistances of their target.

[Most people don’t know that this particular boon works with Bite mutations. It took the Cult ages to work it out. Then a toxin mutation could be taken, which applies a toxin that lowers lightning resistance, done through the bite. Then take the Toxin Mastery Skill which allows for a better injection of toxins. With a single bite, one elemental resistance could be slashed by as much as thirty percent, even at low Levels!]

[That sounds… really impressive, actually.]

This is good stuff. The sophos were never so explicit when explaining these sorts of concepts. Their focus was mainly on the techniques and mastery of manipulating cores. I think they just assumed I would know about maximising gains from appropriate builds. I’ve been so blind!

[Teach me more, Master!]

[Oh, now you’re impressed? We’ve been studying this field for over two thousand years. This is just the beginning. The unfortunate thing is, we have hardly any research on ant-type monsters. I went to the archive this morning and the results are pretty much blank.]

[What? That’s morally wrong! Discrimination!]

[Ants are considered a huge menace in the Dungeon, which can get rapidly out of control. They’re pretty much exterminated whenever they’re found. Keeping a Queen captive is too much of a risk, and keeping an individual worker isn’t worth the effort. You can understand why we have never bothered.]

[I suppose so…]

Please don’t exterminate my family!

[But that’s fine. Other insect types have been researched to death. I have full lists of Skills and mutations for most of your body types, so we can work through that.]

[Okay then.]