Maybe being an aquatic dungeon wouldn't be all bad. Time is a mystery without those with schedules, the fish, snakes and ghouls seem to be randomly active. Sleeping when tired, moving around the submerged halls when awake. Despite having no concept of time, I have to admit it's very relaxing watching life spread through the lower halls. While I can't really "see" the fish, their movements cause disturbances in the water which I feel. It's hard to describe. But these ripples are very soothing, in fact I've almost lapsed into a torpor a few times just feeling them swimming about minding fish business.
The snakes and ghouls are different, yet not. The snakes hunt the fish which results in brief chaotic flurries of movement but most other times the two lesser water snakes just patrol the halls. Don't know why. It's like the leader serpent, it rarely uncoils from my core, only leaving to eat but swiftly returning. It doesn't seem to covet the crystal skull, but its not effecting my energy. For awhile I thought it might be providing warmth but I don't recall Fadewind or Derrick ever warming their hands on my skull.
I can confirm one thing, the snake accompanying my core is female, the other two are males. I surmise they are suitors, each trying to win mating rights with the leader. How I learned of this was after their take over, the Queen as I've come to designated her was visited by one of the males. They writhed together for a bit but she soon sent him away, she laid no eggs since but maybe not as much time has passed as I think. She just coils around my core and sits immobile like a statue.
I've not seen Shadowhand, my dungeon master, since the eruption of issues. I've not received his death notification so he's alive somewhere out there. Why he has not tried to reclaim me, or at least the treasures and resources stored inside me, I cannot fathom. I occasionally ping my area of awareness to see how the locals are faring... and it's not well. Both the small villages are gone and a decent group is gone from the hamlet, but they are resisting the tide of ghouls, reinforcements came to bolster the region but the snakes just pump out more and more gobbo ghouls.
For some reason the Queen seems aware of me. Or at least, she is aware of how I work in the sense the ghouls don't pop the Mother of monsters. In fact the ghouls keep some of the gobbo's alive so i can re-slime when a mother of monsters finally collapses. The Queen shows no real intelligence or effort to communicate, but I know she is more than a simple snake. She might have the system fooled but I'm smarter, no way a dumb animal would act like this.
Her actions remind me of Derrick, very methodical. She has something cooking but she has not revealed it. Or she is simply not taking any chances and waits for my existing master to die so she gets chosen as a new master. Well, Mistress. That in itself is the give away. That's no snake brain thinking there, that's more the careful plotting of a sentient being. I just wish she'd stop hugging my core in any case, I'm simply not use to such physical content... even if I don't feel anything.
Time has passed, I can tell from the slowly evolving ecology inside my lower halls. No longer do I rely on those ripples to "feel" fish swimming along my halls, rather bioluminious lichen has begun to spread along the surfaces. A soft and eerie glow illuminates the depths. I though the dark dwelling fish would be pretty with how graceful they were in their schools. I was mistaken. Some are completely transparent allowing me to see their skeletons and organs through the transparent flesh, others are horrendous monsters, full of teeth and weird eyes.
Its not all peace down there, the spectral fish seem to be a fast breeding prey species to sate the more toothy ones. Some of the flooded side halls are choked with the transparent fish schools while the more dangerous ones lurk close to the underground river access. Like hungry wolves they tend to lay in wait for outside fish to swim through the channel. It is fascinating to watch as a pecking order is established. The ghouls, however, are near the top of the pyramid of this food chain, just beneath the snakes.
One would think the ghouls that call my upper halls would eventually starve but I've noticed that they are not gluttonous creatures. In fact they have terribly small stomachs. Initially I thought they feasted on flesh completely but with most goblins becoming new ghouls where would the old find food? Fact was the ghouls need insanely little food, they only look gluttonous and ever hungry since they tend to swarm a victim, the resulting clawing and tearing is incredibly bloody but the actual consumption is tiny.
They prefer inner organs but seem willing to settle on flesh if they have to, and as soon as a victim begins to ghoulify the existing eaters immediately lose interest. Its strange. When they can't feast on goblins they hunt the fish in the lower halls, a few spectre fish and they seem "full" for a long while. Much as the snakes only need one of the fatter predatory monstrous fish to live on. Often draining the blood and leaving the carcass for a ghoul. Stranger still, there are no ghoul fish. Whatever is in a ghouls bite doesn't seem to altar fish bodies.
I found this strange. What was it about other races that made them change into ghouls when bitten by such or by the water snake but fish were immune? My curiosity was rather piqued by the different effects. Why was an animal spared but a humanoid being changed in mere moments? I wanted to test this, but neither side wanted to cooperate with me. Both fish and ghouls ignored any of my lures. Even the snakes proved more challenging for they at least took notice of my efforts, but the problem was they quickly ignored my attempts to lure them away to take them under my generous wing.
This annoyed me.
You are occupants of my halls, you should at least let me investigate your uniqueness! Seriously no appreciation what so ever for the entity in which you all squat! Fine! I'll just have to take matters in my own hands... There's one of her suitors, he's currently gliding through the hall closest to the mine, I'll try another lure and if he doesn't want my bread crumbs I'll just shove the loaf down his gullet. Now, come to me water snake! I need to test your venom...
.
.
.
Alright you cocky bastard, ignore me, the great Shadowheart dungeon! If you're not gonna be obedient we'll just have to do this the hard way. That's it just float off without a care... nothing I can do to hurt you right? I'm a harmless easily bullied dungeon. Come on, that's right just a little closer to the wall... and BINGO!
I had to laugh to myself. The Queen's suitor sure was arrogant to ignore my summons and now he'll pay the price. A membrane erupted from the wall much in the case of making a Mother of Monsters but this time my target was a male water snake. To be honest, I'd not tried this before. Males were good for meat shields so I didn't want to waste any on becoming a Breeder before but this snake would be my first! I wonder what sort of package I'll put into it? Maybe breed my own snakes? Yeah that'll show him!
I wait watching the cocoon with interest, oddly enough the shell of this egg is somewhat see through and I can see the vague outline of the serpent being remade within. I can't imagine having your physical body rearranged forcibly is overtly pleasant. My own initial trauma was a good indication of what that smug snake is likely going through. Perhaps if I smacked him with a metal grill and then pushed a cart over him a few times he'd have been more compliant. You don't see me bemoaning my inability to walk around. I'm perfectly happy being a water logged set of halls full of flesh eating ghouls. I didn't get an option but I'm making the best of it! Crack a few eggs to make an omlette and all that... whatever an omlette was, I can't really recall, I think it's something to do with eggs so I'm sure it applies here...
Though... I made him into an egg, not really cracked one... bah whatever!
Some time later the Breeder hatches. Much like the Mother of Monsters the Breeder is a slime based organism, its a little bigger than the water snake and doesn't seem to be a water bubble filled with organs. Rather the Breeder is a tentacled slime, its a deep navy blue and seems rather lively. Compared to the Mother of Monsters slime which sits immobile waiting to be bred, the Breeder is more proactive. And very much so at that! Like a silent hunter it glides through the water quite easily, I imagine were the halls dry it would creep around much slower but with a liquid medium it has a significant speed boost.
Anyways I watched it for awhile, softly nudging it towards where the Queen rested, being the only female water snake if I wanted more to study she'd have to contribute to my plans. Problem was there's all sorts of things between it and her. Fish, ghouls, goblins... and what I witnessed next brought back the phantom horror of Terrance and Gretna humping like wild dogs. See the thing about the Breeder slime is, it has one purpose. Find something to mate with, drop its seed in the female and continue that cycle.
The problem being is the driving force behind the Breeder. While the water snake knew it was male that wanted the Queen... the Breeder apparently doesn't give the slightest fuck about what it will breed with. I could only watch in horror as the tentacles grasped several fish and then ruptured its captives shoving other tentacles twice the size of the fish bodies quite literally through them. Needless to say, any poor fishy that encountered this tentacle slime died horrible deaths.
Next was a ghoul. Being a former goblin it put up a bit more of a fight and survived its encounter with the breeder... but if it gas any sense of self left its probably contemplating smashing its brains out on a wall. Let's just say the Breeder invasively explored the ghouls natural orifices and a few of its bigger gaping wounds with its tentacles. It tried to fight back, but also different from the Mother of Monsters slime, the Breeder slime doesn't "pop", even with a ghoul clawing at its tentacles and body it just reabsorbed whatever was damaged or torn off and continued violating the ghouls every hole... violently.
Seeing it discard the ghoul who just floated there lifeless as a strange glowing ooze slithered out of every hole in its body, I began to realize that the Queen just might not survive meeting the Breeder. I mean she's a snake, the Breeder would wear her body like a living condom...
okay, no, not going to Queen anymore buddy. Float yourself around and go this way... there we go. Watching it float silently down another hall away from the core room I breathed a sigh of relief. Breeders are DANGEROUS. Lesson learned... though down that way is where the Mother of Monsters are currently held...
Oh no...