Chương 25: 24. Ghouls

The courtyard fell strangely silent for a long moment, as though everyone had just heard what Jarden had said.

"A sword that lets him ignore Influence?" Tavian asked, eyes wide. Braun seemed stunned.

"With weapons like that, you could equip an entire army. They could march straight into an enemy's kingdom, ignoring their Influence modifier, and destroy the kingdom core." No wonder Anarvia wanted the miasma infuser. He must have his eyes turned outward, toward conquest. The man wouldn't stop with Tar Corinath. A chill ran down Tavian's spine. He had been so confident that his own kingdom's Influence was protecting him during his parley with Lord Anarvia.

But the whole time, the man had a powerful sword that would have allowed him to ignore that Influence. Tavian had been too bold. He should have been more careful.

"We need to stop him from getting it," Tavian muttered.

"Can you tell me where the relic is?" Jarden shook his head.

"I honestly can not give you good directions to get to it. The dungeon… can change. I could lead you to it."

"Ask him about the dungeon," Braun prompted.

"How do we get back in?"

"I want to know about the routes in to the dungeon, and the dangers we might face," Tavian said.

"Ah… is that your final two topics?"

"One topic. The dungeon."

"I think it is two. Ways to access the dungeon, and the dangers found within." Lea spoke in Tavian's head.

"A contract dispute. We can resolve it with a council if you desire, but I will first tell you that Jarden genuinely believes that you are asking him about two different things."

"Very well," Tavian said.

"Let's resolve it. Jarden thinks it is two. Braun, as witness to our oath, do you believe I am pushing the boundaries?"

"I think it's one topic," Braun said.

"That makes the system the tiebreaker," Tavian said. Lea spoke in his mind.

"I think that the phrasing of the contract makes 'the dungeon' too broad," she said.

"My final ruling is in favor of Jarden. You must ask him about one or the other." Tavian clenched his fists, surprised that Lea would take Jarden's side. He didn't know what to say for a moment, then swallowed his frustration. Lea had been some kind of ruler in a previous time, and had let her world be destroyed. She was an ancient, powerful being, and, apparently, couldn't be fully trusted. He'd have to keep a closer eye on her.

Turning his attention to Jarden, Tavian decided he could ask about the ways into the dungeon, which might allow them to harass Lord Anarvia, or even potentially locate the relic before him. Or he could ask about the dangers that they might encounter, which would allow them to prepare for what they might face. They might struggle to find a new way into the dungeon, though. The gatehouse was far from their territory and secured from the inside. Knowing what dangers they might face would save lives.

"Fine then," Tavian said.

"The core has ruled in your favor. We'll consider it two topics. We want to know about the dangers in the dungeon."

"There are many," Jarden said.

"Natural, miasmic, and those that lie somewhere between. Miasma distorts life into lethal, toxic forms, and there are demented wild animals; huge rats, venomous snakes, and other such creatures roaming in the dark. There are also deceptions and illusions, floors that look safe but are gaping holes, corridors that move and disappear. But the most dangerous of all are the undead."

"Undead?"

"Ghouls. Reanimated bodies, lacking souls." Tavian remembered he Anarvian man he'd cut down in the dungeon. The man hadn't bled at all. Tavian had assumed it was a trick of the dim light, but his flesh seemed to be already rotting on his bones.

"It has gotten much worse down there as of late," Jarden said.

"Every man that is lost in the dungeon becomes a wandering fiend, stirring up more miasma, and waking other dead bodies from their slumber. They rage against life, and want nothing more than to destroy it and taint all other essence." Calli gasped. The blood drained from Tavian's face.

"Lord Anarvia going to accidentally unleash an army of ghouls on Tar Corinath," Tavian declared.

"We need to stop him!" This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"But how?" Calli asked.

"If you go down into the dungeons and kill his men, you'll only create more of them!" Tavian drew his advisors into a huddle. He glanced at Jarden, noted the man pretending not to be listening, and then he shuffled everyone several steps further away.

"Greater Tar Corinath could be in grave risk if a flood of ghouls is about to pour out of Tavirost Fortress. I know that there is an entrance to the dungeons outside of the fortress somewhere; because Jarden admitted to showing Anarvia how to get in that way. If we could secure the entrances to the dungeon, we might be able to prevent this tragedy."

"It must be dangerous or hard to reach, or he'd have simply marched his soldiers in that way," Braun observed.

"Good point," Tavian said.

"Some of the entrances may be more important for us to seal than others." He was starting to wish that he'd listened to Lea's advice about sealing the dungeon when he'd first found it. Braun nodded gravely.

"What if the dungeon extends throughout the city?" he asked.

"Could not ghouls arise from holes in the ground everywhere?"

"That would be a problem. No way to know without asking."

"We should better understand the relationship between Jarden and Lord Anarvia," Cormath said.

"Getting more information on what they've been planning will allow us to counter their plans better. Find out what he's done with Jarden's daughter. Ask him about that." The advice was surprisingly specific, coming from the swordmaster. Tavian groaned, rubbing his face. He wanted to ask about all these things.

"The immediate danger is from an undead army," he said.

"Second in danger is Anarvia finding and extracting the relic. We can cut off both of those things by securing the entrances, if they are primarily within the fortress grounds."

"We don't even hold the whole keep, let alone the fortress," Braun said.

"It's all speculation until we ask," Tavian said.

"We need to know." He turned to Jarden.

"We need to know where else you can get into and out of the dungeon," he said. Jarden nodded.

"There is an entrance in one of the crypts, in the graveyard behind the Temple of Ishtoran. That is how Anarvia and his men entered. So far as I know, that is the only entrance that is outside of the walls; the outer wall was constructed with deep foundations that pierce the earth."

"Is that it?" Tavian asked.

"There are other areas where the separation is thin, and a new hole could be made, like you did with the gatehouse," Jarden said, with a shrug.

"I see," Tavian said.

"It's good news if there aren't any other—" Jarden inhaled sharply. His knees buckled, and he clutched at his chest, gasping with pain.

"What's happening?" Braun asked, staring at the man writhing on the ground. A slow smile began to spread across Tavian's face.

"There…. there is another entrance," Jarden gasped. Immediately his body relaxed.

"There is an entrance between the inner and outer walls. To the west. Accessed through a toolshed." Everyone stared at Jarden, who was breathing hard, trying to get himself back under control. He glanced at Tavian for another question. Tavian started to ask, but Jarden began moaning again, doubling over and straining against his restraints.

"It's too much," he wailed.

"There's one more! Another entrance, hidden in the kitchen larders!" He gritted his teeth, his breathing turning into a high pitched whine as the system punished him. Tavian grinned broadly.

"That will teach you to try circumventing your oath," Tavian said.

"You can't hide your guilty conscience." Braun's eyes widened, and he smiled too.

"You can't even withhold information like that," he said.

"You have to tell us the whole truth." Jarden wheezed as he righted himself.

"That's the whole truth," he said.

"It's everything I know, two other entrances."

"Understood," Tavian said.

"If access to the dungeon is mostly contained to the fortress, we can still stop Anarvia, and hopefully prevent an outbreak of ghouls." He turned to Braun.

"The nearest entrance to us is the larders. We could barricade it, which would buy us time."

"I can lead a force and take care of that," Braun said. Tavian nearly dismissed the idea, but remembered how many of Braun's suggestions he'd shot down lately.

"Get ready." Braun saluted, moving off to organize an attack. Tavian turned back to Jarden.

"Describe the larder entrance for me. How can we block it off?"

"It's a trapdoor in the back corner," Jarden said.

"It opens up into a large room, but it's foul and filthy; the cooks use it as a grease pit for dumping waste."

"So if we block that door, we seal the exit," Tavian said.

"The whole structure there is rotting wood," Jarden said.

"If you truly want to seal it, you'll have to go down into the dungeon and collapse the corridor leading into that room. It shouldn't be hard, the supports there are already sagging." Tavian nodded. The contract he'd made with Jarden was paying off with valuable, trustable information. He'd have to use this Perk more in the future. If this was what a Tier II Perk could do, he couldn't wait to get to Tier III. They might still want to access the dungeons, though, so a barricade would be better than a cave in.

Tavian checked his kingdom status. The sifting of the treasures from the throne room had restored his essence. The heavy throne sat in the courtyard, placed in front of the damaged Air Gate, where it could be used to brace the doors in event of an attack. Light glittered on the gemstones set in the fine workmanship of stone and precious metal. Exposed as it was to the sunlight, now, Tavian noted that many of the precious gems had been torn out of their settings.

⬣ Kingdom Status ⬣ Core Essence Tiles Claimed Influence 183 17 10. 8 Tavian did not know how high of an Influence level he had to maintain to preserve his tiles from the turbulent miasmic surges. Lea had said at least ten, but he knew that hundreds of men searching the ground beneath his feet would stir up more and more of the corrupted essence. Furthermore, maintaining as high a level of Influence as possible would make their search for the relic more frustrating. He checked to see what his enemy was up to.

Anarvia still controlled portions of the inner wall, but seemed to have given up on the attempted encirclement. At least another half banner of men still roamed around, holding various parts of the fortress. Tavian checked the map for any possibility that this was a trap, or a feint of some kind. He wondered if Anarvia had accompanied his men down into the dungeon, and decided the man likely had not.

Anarvia believed that the relic was inside of Tavian's territory; that was simple enough to deduce by the energy Anarvia had exerted in trying to extract Tavian. Well, Tavian was going to do whatever he could to ruin Lord Anarvia's plans. Braun approached, three fists of soldiers at his back.

"Tavian," he said, snapping a smart salute.

"I'm ready to take the kitchen larders."