My first horrible thought as the Breeder drifted into the aquatic breeder chamber was that all those poor Mother of Monsters would be popped in short order. The Breeder was not a gentle lover in any sense of the phrase. It was a slimey machine that did its job with brutal efficiency. Worse still every time it "finished" with a fish or ghoul I detected no energy loss, did this thing run on an internal battery of power and would eventually shag itself to death? But how long before that happened?
Still, a part of me was curious. What just would happen if you made a breeding pit and tossed a Mother of Monsters in with a Breeder. Just what the hell would spawn out of that union? What was packaged in the Mother of Monsters? What was packaged in the Breeder? Or would they breed slime akin to themselves. Considering the possibilities I focused my gaze to the breeding chamber to see just what was going on. Would it be a scene out of a horror story or would the gods above intervene to prevent an unholy abomination from being born... I couldn't wait to find out.
Yet, my hopes were to be dashed. Seems the Breeder did have ONE stipulation to catch its attention. You needed an orifice to plunder. Thing about the Mothers of Monsters was that one had to poke through the membrane covering the uterus to deposit the seed, for whatever reason, this thin membrane utterly disinterested the Breeder. The ghouls and goblins however... were not spared. While the Breeder was not overly big, maybe a little bigger than say a cobra, there was a multitude of tentacles on its surface, it could ensnare multiple targets and as long as a hole was available, it did not stop until that hole was flooded.
For the living goblins who were natural horny little bastards this rather rigorous defilement wasn't completely alien. Perhaps having a phallic tentacle shoved up a nostril or in an ear was unsettling but they quickly got use to it. Some even started to enjoy it. Seriously you horn dogs would likely screw anything. The ghouls were a different story. Several were positioned at either end of this modified hall. The submerged ghouls in the water were victimized before any knew the wiser... however the ones blocking the dry exit of the passage had a front row seat for Breeder Does Cave Goblins Gangbangpalooza. The few that ran were undoubtedly counting their lucky undead stars.
The few that remained...
... discovered there's worse things than true death.
Bodies littered the hall, goblins and ghouls alike laid limply all over the place, ooze leaking out of every conceivable place the Breeder thought to deposit it. It looked like a grotesque war zone, one where two opposing sides were ambushed and thoroughly ravaged. Several life long (and unlife long) vendettas were born from the Breeders passing. To be honest, I could not blame the victims, the Breeder was an unstoppable mating machine. Of course coupling the hatred of the violated there were those special cases as well who, despite the savage invasion they just underwent, developed a longing for the thing. Sick bastards... but good to know.
To be honest I was disappointed that the Mothers of Monsters were deemed unsuitable by the Breeder. Maybe if I locked the two together I could get them to... interact. That, however, would be an experiment for later. Right now I watched the slime crawling along the dry hall, as suspected, without the water the Breeder's advance was considerably slower giving the above hall ghouls ample opportunity to get the hell out of its path. Rather surprisingly, the Breeder didn't chase them as long as they got out of reach it would amble on past.
Honestly it soon became a rather common occurrence to see packs of ghouls and goblins abandoning a hall only a bit later to see the Breeder slither in. It was rather comical to watch, especially for the goblins enamored by it, while there were escapees there was also a few that threw themselves into the path of it, often being ravaged senseless only to wake up and seek it out again. As I said before, sick bastards. The other side of the issue was what was birthed from its visits. Much like the Mother of Monsters, those bred by the Breeder slime saw a rather swift pregnancy, but the resulting off spring were strange.
First off, goblin-Breeder offspring became hybrids. They were a mix of snake and goblin, short and blue scaled. Long serpentine tongues and long fangs. The ghouls seemed to give them a wide berth, especially so when a Snake Goblin pounced a ghoul and began eating its flesh. Other than being corpse eaters they gained an affinity for water. This new strain of goblin caught my interest, especially since they had a low berth rate compared to the Cave Goblins, perhaps they had a longer life span?
Next were the ghoul-Breeder abominations. Yeah, I was surprised to see female goblin ghouls swell up after being victimized by the Breeder too. A faded memory seemed to think a corpse body shouldn't be able to give berth, though what eventually erupted from the mixture was beyond abnormal. First of the berth was explosively bad, likely due to a ghoul not realizing berth required them to push the "child" out the ghoul mothers would just grow bigger and bigger before suddenly rupturing. What stood in the gorey remains was a strange mix of slime and ghoul, they looked humanoid but were entirely made out of slime. The creature would quickly absorb its "parent" then slither off.
Much like the Mothers of Monsters, the Breeder shunned these offspring. Being slime bodied they just tended to slither around. To this point I haven't figured out what they eat, they just tend to move around and seem completely disinterested in living or dead flesh. I started to think maybe these things were a predator that might target the Breeder but when they met they just passed each other by. It rather confounded me until one entered the breeder hall. These slime beings took an active interest in the female goblins and reacted much like the Breeder, a mess of tentacles, lots of screams and moans and a messy finish. Unlike the Breeder which didn't care what it bred with, the ghoul-Breeder slime only targeted females.
What was even more bazaar was the children of these things. While the initial few offspring were more slime like the slime parent, every sixth or seventh slime produced was more akin to the Breeder. These second generation Breeders were equally unpicky but rather than producing the prior children creatures the third generation off spring was a slime. Like the abominations they didn't seem to need to eat, they didn't even react to anything in the dungeon. They just tended to multiply like rabbits and litter the floor, walks and ceiling.
My halls were becoming crowded very quickly, what had once been a guild hideout became a ghoul infested aquatic dungeon. The birth of the Breeder had changed him greatly once more. While the ghouls had still been creating more of themselves through the captured cave goblins and Mothers of Monsters, new entities had risen in his halls. The Snake Goblins had sealed off the opposite side of the maze breaking free of the ghouls and were in a vicious turf war with the undead monsters. Both sides were also carefully avoiding the Breeder as it wandered freely throughout.
The third faction, the slime nation, also existed throughout the dungeon. The second generation Breeder slime had somehow been corralled in the ghoul section of the halls. While it only targeted females it also ignored undead so while it often lead to creepy slime people lurking around the ghouls, there were no attacks. Well, on the ghouls at least. Their captive cave goblins tended to attract the second generation Breeders so the breeding hall was rather a central hub of monsters.
Beneath the flooded halls the snakes still were the apex faction, the slimes could not easily submerge to accost the fish or snakes. The Queen has ignored all else in the dungeon, it almost feels like she's some sort of spiritual pet or reclusive expert shutting herself away to cultivate. Well, near as I can detect she's not gathering energy, mine or the heavens. She lays there holding me tight, to be honest to have this closeness is rather nice even if we can't communicate. Just wish I could figure out her situation.
.
.
.
From what I can see time is steadily advancing. The snake goblins have established their own tribe and are fighting against the ghouls. Being somewhat serpent in nature has given them greater flexibility and agility, they even break even with the ghouls when it comes to speed. The ghouls are still stronger though. Undead seem to be like orcs, not so fast, but hella strong. The slime and snakes have stayed neutral but something is making my murals itch. Its almost like everyone is gearing up for someth....
{ Dungeon Master Shadowhand has died outside the dungeon. }
Oh.
Wait, he didn't get killed, he died? What the hell? Did that thief really die of old age? He was a wood elf... don't they have obscenely long lives? How the hell does an elf die of old age? Just how long has it been? I mean shouldn't the Queen and her buddy should have died ages ago? Wait... is that why she's never moved? She's dead too? No, not possible. If the Queen had died I would have gotten a message and some energy right?
The thought that Derrick had died of old age outside as an elf had greatly disturbed me. Had hundreds of years past on the outside? Were all my breeding and monster making really consuming hundreds of years... I just could not fathom it. I'd been pinging outside had I not, but in truth it had been awhile since looking in on the besieged hamlet, in truth I'd been fully engrossed watching the various factions establishing themselves. I mean, I should have realized when the Snake goblins established a tribe that a single day was absurd, naturally they had to establish themselves and be more than a rag tag group of Breeder spawned brats...
I really need a clock... or a calendar, heck I'd settle for arms and chalk to mark the days on a wall. To think things have pushed ahead that quickly. Oh well. Shadowhand never pushed the ghouls back. So I guess... time to move on. The question then becomes will I be ruled by a goblin? I really don't see who else would take the reigns in here. The Queen might be possible but how would a snake survive hundreds of years and outlast an elf? I simply can't see it.
Speaking of her where's her buddy? After I converted his competition surely he must have won her over, yet I don't see him. There's no eggs, no baby water snakes not even the male. He's not in his usual spot... wait, could that be...? Well if its not him then there had to be another arrival. What caught my attention was a long skeleton laying in one of my halls. From the sharp fangs and scattered scales it sorta could be him, but when was he some twenty feet long? His bones stretch right around a corner. Yet the Queen isn't that big. She's still wrapped tight around my skull... nope she's the same size as when she first came in...
No way that big dead snake was her remaining buddy, surely she'd have gotten that big too if he had. Unless... could they be different species? Maybe... well. No, what am I thinking? Yes they have fangs and drink blood but they're not undead vampires.
Only one way to find out I guess. Focus... focus... let it start...
{ Dungeon Master Shadowhand has died, Dungeon Shadowheart is without a dungeon master. Detecting candidates. Potential candidates found! }
Alright system, who's the new boss....