Chapter 13-372: Places to Go, Things to Do (1/2)

Sleipner was earning his extra stuff every day, too. Veilwalking and his speed made him the absolute best way to get a Lived-Line to anywhere, as long as you could fuel his Ward-ride. That generally required a Warlock with a Ward at /4 or higher, of course, but those were a lot more common than they used to be, and conscripting one to serve as a driver for the two of them wouldn’t have been all that hard.

But, since both Legion and Azaia, and a few other people, all needed Lived-Line connections to the area, the trip actually turned into something of a Disk Caravan of people extending their Lived-Lines, trailing behind the unicorn-cycle while they worked on Infusing or Investing.

Azaia had been using Sleipner in this way during their downtime, riding him from India back towards Europe to link up with prior Lived-Lines for herself and those who wanted to extend their present or future Teleporting range, including our family.

This troop added several dozen others, including Shvaughn, Legion, The Mick, Amaretta, and myself. It was a fixed eight hours, and then conjoined Teleports synched to my own sent everyone back to their starting locations.

Along the way, everyone got into serious discussions about making Stuff, including The Old Steed. Given the sheer amount of ground I had to cover for the Nuke the Deeps Initiative, it was agreed that I should be riding Sleipner, and The Old Steed would be remanded for the use of Azaia.

Since that required recognition of status, it also meant I was going to have to do the Elemental Ceremonies for all of them... which only made everyone more enthusiastic. They only got more excited when The Mick thoughtfully asked if I’d gone down into the deeps under the Central Spire of Hyperborea and explored it for the god-bug’s loot, or if I’d truly and properly explored the catacombs and crypts of the place for, uh, intellectually stimulating merchandising opportunities.

Briggs’ and Sama’s dour moods almost popped, it was so tangible. “There’s a cave and dungeon system inside a mountain inhabited by a millennia-old magical culture and an Old God, and you didn’t explore it and loot it to the floor?” Briggs asked in disbelief, as quite suddenly all that old gamer programming took right on over.

I rolled my eyes at everyone. “Someone was working on saving the world and had to go kill millions of Cultivators! Someone who already had two Divine Weapons sitting around, and is mining the Hells out of Yellowstone!” And had looted the New York Fed, but nobody said anything about that.

“Tricks and traps!” Sama purred.

“Horrors lost to the ages!” Briggs added grimly.

“Centuries, nay, millennia of offerings to some dark things best encouraged to end their days,” The Mick joined in with spirit.

“A lot of experience fighting monstrous things, which we are going to need,” Amaretta pointed out dutifully.

“There are probably a whole lot of secondary Pact Grantors there who need to be put down. Why, there’s potential to springboard to other Old Things in the whole rest of the place,” Shvaughn noted pointedly.

“Exploring a whole new magical place! They have to have a Felldeep over there too, right?” Azaia spoke up, her golden eyes dancing.

“Can this be... broadcast?” Morningfire asked into the excitable atmosphere.

Everyone there looked back and forth at one another.

“Gotta get Helix in on this,” I said to nobody in particular, and everyone agreed. “Also, nobody goes unless they are Beyond Law and Chaos, and you’ve got the Sun Saves at +25 or better. You are going into some very, very high-Level territory, and I can’t take the time to have fun with you there. Dungeon delving is extreme crazy death-defying fun... which is also quite deadly.

“I totally agree you all need experience against more than undead and Cultivators, given what is coming. But that doesn’t mean these places are not dangerous... and they shouldn’t detract from what you’ve got to do before the Shroud comes down.” That had to be everyone’s priority.

“We’ll set up the parameters before we head down. We should focus on clearing out any offerings/treasures from the god-bug’s home and the catacombs, mapping and charting the whole place, and possibly securing it as a base of operations for future endeavors. No Felldeep and Old God raids until the Cultivators are dealt with, at least,” Sama declared in a voice that brooked no opposition.

“But... it’s good experience, and a way to blow off steam,” Briggs grunted. “Figure a once a week run or something, we can get together to explore the place.”

That got bandied about as a workable option, with Sir Pellier, Helix, and Father Bower out in the distance pleased to be included.

“Dark, question.” I looked over at Morningflame’s words. “The Mountains of Madness, with the shoggoth. Is it possible we could try to recruit more shoggoth there, like Mr. Burble, as The Mick did, while we are there?”

“Huh.” I glanced over at The Mick, who looked thoughtful. “Mr. Burble is doing what it’s doing of its own Free Will. The blood of the Irish just gives it an anchor to cling to, a foundation so that it can actually think on its own.

“Lord Mick, I want you to ask Mr. Burble about this, specifically about such things like territory and bloodlines and relationships between shoggoth. If it thinks this is viable and something that can be offered to all shoggoth successfully, and it might even have a way to improve the process, then by all means we should start mass recruitment of shoggoth to help the world out.

“I do NOT, however, want the shoggoth concentrated in the hands of a few. If the shoggoth want to be unique and stand on their own, they should be dispersed among and with the various peoples that are out there. Trying to corral them into a small set of hands is very dangerous, and Mr. Burble is aware of this, too.

“They should not ever fight our battles for us, and they should not ever be treated as something we can order around. That takes a very special mindset to accomplish and to pull off. Shoggoth who get into the hands of the power-hungry are going to end up treating humanity just like they did the Elder Races that spawned them.”

“Give them a foundation, then let them sit back an’ watch an’ observe, an’ make their own decision,” The Mick agreed. “Aye, that’s the right way of it. We’ll be needing blood, of course.”

“I’ll get the Allegiance started on that now.”

I was still feeling bad at killing so many of the things after finding out this weird method of liberating them from their own slavery and madness was viable. I didn’t know if the shoggoth who had been damned under the Mountains of Madness all these eons could be saved, but not trying was not something I could do easily now.

Who knew that Blood Magic would find itself so useful in this way?

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We didn’t reach the territory of the White Wolves on the first day, or even the second. If the roads had been in good shape, it might have been possible, but Sleipner was unable to Veilwalk on them, and so our maximum speed was reduced. Eight hours of travel was only a thousand miles or so over the rough terrain and mountains, although old roads not traveled by humans in some time did speed things up once we got to the plains and forests of southern Russia.

It was a nice break and way to get together and talk about things in person, as opposed to /tellepathy. We could still work and commiserate, while traveling and moving together, productive while effectively on vacation, showing how it was done.