Tarl
“Tarl,” comes Telar’s voice, drifting through the Dungeoneer’s Guild office without a hint of concern.
“Kinda busy,” he responds, still going through the records of fly denizens, looking for commonalities in the ways they attack, and also in the best ways to attack them back.
“Take a look out the window,” she insists, amusement finally evident as she takes a sip of her tea.
Tarl sighs and finishes his current thought in writing, then does as asked. He even takes the chance to set aside his quill and lean back in a stretch. He almost falls out of his chair when he sees a gigantic ball of… something slowly disappearing behind the canopy of the huge tree.
“What the…?!”
Telar giggles, her cup amplifying the sound. “I think you’re about to be even busier, Inspector.” She basks in the glare he sends her, though he doesn’t give her the chance to revel in it long, as Berdol returns with a few more books from the archives.
“I think you have all the fly information there, but I grabbed a few more general books on combinations of shadow and fate, too,” he says, trailing off as he takes in the scene before him. Tarl’s mood brightens as he turns on the tabby catkin.
“Get your clipboard, Berdol. Thedeim’s done an expansion, and it’s even weirder than usual.” He glances out the window. “And probably even weirder than I think it is already. He has a habit of splurging on his expansions.”
Berdol nods and sets the books down, grabbing his note-taking supplies before following Tarl to the area they have their inspecting gear stored. “What did he do? There’s not a second tree or something, is there?”
Tarl snorts and smiles at the idea. “If only. It almost looked like he picked up part of a sparse forest, wrapped it around a huge ball, and set it floating around the tree.”
Berdol pauses at that description. “What would… How would…”
Tarl nods. “Indeed. I don’t think he’ll be trying to make it something even stronger than what the tree offers, at least. In the meeting, I think he got the message that it’ll take people like Olander to face that sort of challenge, and there’s maybe a dozen people in the kingdom at his level.”
“Then what is he doing with it?”
Tarl shrugs. “Maybe something like the Gauntlets? I honestly don’t know. Which is why we’re going to go ask, and see if we can inspect, too.”
Berdol nods at that, and the two quiet to get their gear on, occasionally helping settle something or tighten a strap that needs it. Once prepared, they set out, with Telar giving them both a nod as they go.
The citizenry are certainly interested in whatever Thediem is getting up to, but seeing Tarl and Berdol walking with purposeful strides has most of them feeling reassured. It’s not their job to figure out what madness Thediem is getting up to, it’s his. That doesn’t stop them from pointing and looking as the huge ball comes floating out from behind the tree, giving the two inspectors a better look at it.
“It really does look like it’s just wrapped about a ball, doesn’t it…” comments Berdol, already taking notes. “It seems like a lot of effort for not much delving space, though.”
Tarl absently nods, wondering if Thedeim can actually use his new affinity to allow people to walk along the entire surface without falling off. It sounds utterly mad, but it also sounds like the sort of thing he’d do.
Entering the manor has him and Berdol both greeted with the cacophonous caws of the crows and ravens, with even a couple dire ravens in the area to join in. It doesn’t take long for Teemo to appear on Tarl’s shoulder, the Voice trying to act like he and Thedeim both aren’t looking forward to showing off their latest bit of nonsense.
“Heya Tarl! Berdol! I’d offer snacks, but it looks like you two are here on business.”
Tarl simply points at the floating piece of terrain. “I’d call that business, yes.”
Teemo smirks. “Boss still isn’t sure what to call them. And yeah, them. He’s planning on floating a few more before we go after the Betrayer. There’s a legend of a gigantic tree with entire worlds hanging in the branches like fruit, but they’re all something-home in the legend. Like elf home, dwarf home, things like that. I think he should call them World Fruits, even if that’s a bit grandiose. They’re not that big, even with the vines helping.”
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“What are they for?” asks Berdol, his pen scritching away as he eagerly takes notes on his floating board.
“Mid-tier delving, mostly. The caverns have been fine, but with all the civilian delvers, not to mention the enclaves, he thinks he needs to make sure they have more places to delve as they get too strong for the manor. He’s planning to slowly increase the difficulty once past the porch, to encourage the rank newbies to delve Violet while he focuses more on the middle tier. He might eat a little into Hullbreak’s pool of delvers, but I think his delvers tend to be more specialized for water, so he shouldn’t lose too much from it.”
“And how do people get there?” asks Tarl, glancing around to see if there’s a new shortcut nearby.
“Shortcuts, but not here. Boss had me put in three: one after the Gauntlet, one in the caverns, and one outside the Labyrinth. He figures if people can get to the Labyrinth and the caverns, they should be fine in the spheres, and if they want a challenge, they can go through the Gauntlet to get there. They’re hollow, too, so there’s delving on the surface and inside. Want me to show you the shortcuts?”
“If you don’t mind,” answers Tarl. “Usually we’d need to explore, but I get the feeling those floating things are going to be the things we should try to pay attention to.”
Teemo nods and directs them to the access shaft the miners use to get to the caverns, though they quickly stray from the path to the quarry once down there. “It’s basically as far as we could get from the enclave and the quarry, so nobody gets there on accident. This one leads to the inside. If you’re not paying attention, you might not even know you’re up in the air.”
The shortcut is rather short, and soon they’re inside a winding collection of tunnels, littered with mid-tier mining and subterranean herbalism nodes. It’s also crawling with denizens, and Tarl and Berdol start quickly and efficiently clearing their immediate area. Tarl is even happy to see a small swarm of compies, which he and Berdol team up to defeat.
Berdol keeps them at bay with two of his floating blades as the others trail after Tarl as he slips into the shadows. He has to focus to borrow the shadows of the blades, and to focus more to split off extras as well. He steps out behind the compies and unleashes the storm of shadow and steel with a shout of “Fading Flensing!” from them both.
Even with their small size, their hides are tougher than one might usually expect, but the combination is enough to eliminate the denizens without too much fuss. He and Berdol get to processing them as Tarl gives his thoughts.
“It looks like the number of denizens is higher than usual? Though that was a smaller swarm.”
Teemo nods. “Boss basically wants the delvers in here to almost always be either fighting or gathering, with not much travel time between. The spacial vines are making sure there’s extra room, but things are still going to be a bit cramped. The surface is going to be pretty similar, just with the open air. And people will be able to walk around on the entire surface, not just the top, too. Gravity allows for some fun stuff, once you know what you’re doing.”
Tarl pauses in skinning a compy as he digests that. “So on the surface, you could look up and see the town drifting by above? Below?”
Teemo nods. “Boss is expecting a lot of people on the surface will need some time to adjust. Wanna step outside to see? Right now, there’s no shortcuts between in and out, but Boss isn’t opposed to changing that.”
Tarl nods as he puts away the compy hide. “I’d like to take a look outside, yes. If it’s as disorienting as you say, it might be a good idea to have a more ordinary entrance just so people can try to adjust.”
Teemo rubs his chin in thought. “Maybe. Anyway, this way, gentlemen.”
The two follow Teemo through an even shorter shortcut, and Tarl is glad to see they appear to be on the top. He’s not sure how well he’d handle suddenly being upside-down over Fourdock. Looking around, he can already feel his balance trying to compensate for something it doesn’t need to. Berdol seems to be handling it better, though.
“That’s so odd to see the horizon so close like that.” Berdol starts walking, and Tarl has to keep blinking as he follows, his instincts telling him Berdol is walking off the edge. It takes them about a minute before Tarl calls out.
“Hang on a second, Berdol!” he says, louder than necessary. The catkin seems completely unbothered by the fact the world is clearly severely tilted right now. Tarl’s eyes are screaming he should be falling, but his balance is perfectly at peace. He closes his eyes and rubs them, grumbling. “That is… definitely confusing…”
Teemo laughs. “Isn’t it great!”
“I like it!” declares Berdol, before he sees just how out of sorts Tarl is. He walks up and pats his shoulder. “Try to focus on the ground here, and not pay too much attention to what the sky is supposed to be.”
Tarl opens his eyes, still grumpy and a little queasy, but following Berdol’s advice has him feeling less like he’s about to fall upward. The idea tickles a memory in his head, and he soon groans as he looks at Teemo. “Is this what you were talking about a while ago, about upgrades to the Labyrinth?”
Teemo looks surprised for a moment before laughing. “Boss says yes! It’s probably a bit less dramatic inside. There, you can at least pretend its everyone else walking on the walls and ceilings with only you on the floor. Kinda hard to pretend when you can literally see the sky isn’t where it’s supposed to be.”
Tarl gives him a flat look. “I noticed, yeah.”
“Here, maybe an encounter will take your mind off it!” Teemo laughs as he vanishes down another shortcut. Meanwhile, a widow and a few cobras exit a bush. Tarl fights his stomach as he takes his stance, grimacing as he moves to engage.
“Alright Tarl… you’ve fought while nauseous before. An inflicted status or a natural one, it doesn’t make a difference…” There is definitely a difference, but he’ll never admit it, even as he sits on the ground after the fight, his eyes closed as Berdol processes the denizens like nothing’s wrong. He nods to himself as he pulls out his note stone.
“Note to self: let Berdol solo-inspect the other World Fruits as they appear, if he likes them so much.”
