Dungeon Master (Karma System)

The first fungal creatures did not attack the goblins waiting behind the earthen barriers.

They spread.

The pale bodies split along their backs after reaching the stones bordering the entrance. White cords slipped into the ground, while thin caps unfolded above the soil. Each new patch connected with the growth beside it until a curved line formed around the archway.

Brannik watched from behind the first barrier. The goblin archers kept their bows raised, but he did not order them to fire.

Nethren remained beneath the archway with larger creatures gathering behind him. Squat fungal guards carried clubs grown from the same dark material covering their bodies. Cave moths clung to the connected dungeon’s ceiling; their wings folded around swollen bodies. Several animals that might once have been wolves moved between them with pale caps replacing their fur.

Hizon studied the scene through his control-room display.

The enemy wanted him to react first.

Burning the initial growth would reveal the range of the fire pots and the locations of the concealed strips. Sending defenders forward would expose the first barrier’s strength. Nethren had sacrificed nothing except creatures made to plant growth.

"Hold the first line until the larger creatures cross the marked stones." Hizon said. "Archers may kill anything carrying growth beyond them, but no one activates the burn strips without Brannik’s order."

Brannik repeated the command to the nearby officers.

The enemy continued expanding along the entrance. The first cords reached the shallow stream bed running across the valley and stopped at the damp gravel. More carriers emerged to reinforce them. The patches thickened, and overlapping caps trapped warm mist close to the ground.

One goblin archer released too early.

His arrow struck a pale carrier and pinned it to the soil. The body ruptured. A cloud of gray spores rose around the shaft before settling across the ground.

The surrounding caps expanded.

Brannik looked toward the archer. "Do not help them grow."

The goblin lowered his bow.

Nethren raised two fingers.

The fungal guards advanced.

They moved in a broad line with carriers crawling between their legs. The first rank crossed the marked stones without resistance. The second followed. When the carriers reached open soil beyond the established growth, Brannik gave the order.

Goblin archers aimed for legs and joints instead of swollen fungal bodies. The first volley dropped several guards without rupturing their central growths and unleashing clouds of spores. A second volley struck the smaller carriers. Fire arrows followed before the spores released by their deaths could settle.

Flames moved through the new patches of fungal growth.

Nethren’s line of advancing soldiers did not stop. The guards dragged their damaged bodies forward while fresh cords entered the soil beneath them. Moths detached from the ceiling and passed over the flames. Their wings scattered dust that smothered the smallest fires and coated the ground in a damp film.

Brannik waited until the guards reached the first barrier.

"First strip."

Goblin Trappers pulled protected levers. A buried line of fire crossed the valley behind the enemy’s leading rank. The sudden wall of flame separated the guards at the barrier from the growth supporting them.

Bombardier Beetles rose behind the goblins.

Their handlers directed streams of heated chemicals over the earthen wall. The attack struck the isolated fungal guards and ignited the residue beneath them. Dark plates cracked as the heat built inside their bodies. Several collapsed. Others continued swinging until goblin spears forced them away from the barrier.

The enemy lost the first exchange, but Nethren showed no anger.

He watched the fire.

Hizon changed displays and examined the growth remaining near the archway. Cords pulled away from the burning strip before the flames reached them. The retreat began at the outer edges and moved inward, as though the entire network had received the warning at once.

The Artificer reviewed the heat readings from the burning strip. The fire destroyed everything exposed above the ground, but the temperature fell sharply beneath the surface. Most of the deeper cords had withdrawn before they could burn. The attack had cleared the position without preventing the network from reclaiming it later.

The Forgeguard remained silent on the Foundry display. The Ant Hill crews listened without abandoning their assigned work.

Nethren sent another wave.

The second group carried slabs of wet fungus taller than the creatures behind them. Arrows entered the shields and disappeared without reaching flesh. Burning shafts produced smoke but failed to spread. The guards advanced along the scorched ground while new carriers moved behind their protection.

Brannik shifted the archers toward both sides of the barrier. Their shots struck at angles, finding exposed limbs and the carriers concealed behind the shields. Nethren responded by narrowing his formation.

The enemy was adapting quickly, but every adaptation made his intent clearer.

He wanted growth beyond the first barrier more than he wanted to kill its defenders.

Hizon contacted Brannik. "Do not hold the center if the shields reach the wall. Open the prepared gap and draw them through."

"Opening the gap will let them plant growth behind the first barrier." Brannik said.

"That ground is the oil pit." Hizon said. "Draw enough of them inside to justify revealing it, then burn everything they planted."

Brannik looked toward the disguised break in the barrier. "Understood."

The goblins defending the center withdrew several steps. The wet shields pressed against the earthen wall, and fungal guards climbed over one another to cross it. Others found the gap and poured through.

The ground collapsed beneath them.

An entire section behind the barrier dropped into a shallow pit lined with stone. The fall did little damage, but it packed the fungal creatures together. Oil flowed from clay containers broken by the collapse.

Brannik ignited it.

The wet shields delayed the flames for several seconds. They could not protect the creatures from oil burning beneath their feet. Heat filled the pit, cracked armor, and transformed damp fungal slabs into clouds of bitter steam.

The cords in the soil recoiled again.

This time, Hizon saw where they went.

Every strand pulled toward three thick knots behind Nethren’s line. They resembled ordinary clusters of caps until the smaller cords moved beneath them. Those were the nearest junctions. The network could spread across the valley, but its awareness still passed through concentrated points.

"Brannik, mark three targets." Hizon said. "One beside the left entrance stone, one beneath the leaning cap near the center, and one against the right wall. Those growths are carrying information for everything ahead of them."

Brannik relayed the locations to his best archers. Ordinary arrows would not penetrate the wet layers surrounding the junctions. The goblins prepared heavier shafts carrying small clay bulbs.

Nethren must have felt their attention shift.

The three junctions sank.

Fungal cords pulled them below the upper layer of soil before the archers could fire. The network sacrificed several exposed patches to conceal its most important parts.

Brannik released the volley anyway.

The clay bulbs shattered across the ground. Acid ate through caps, cords, and damp soil. One buried junction rose as the strands beneath it contracted. A Bombardier Beetle struck the same location with a stream of heated chemicals.

The knot burst.

Every fungal creature inside the burning pit convulsed at once. Several turned toward enemies that were no longer beside them. Others continued trying to climb a wall already crowded with their own allies.

The disruption lasted only moments.

It was enough.

Goblin spears drove the survivors back into the flames. Archers killed the carriers that had crossed the barrier. By the time another junction assumed control, the enemy had lost the foothold.

Nethren lowered his raised hand.

The amber light beneath his chest plates brightened. New cords spread from his feet and entered the network. The confusion ended immediately.

Hizon leaned closer to the display.

Nethren was not merely issuing commands through the growth. He could replace a damaged junction with himself.

That ability carried a cost. The amber light in Nethren’s chest dimmed whenever he forced order back into a damaged section, then recovered as the surrounding cords thickened. Hizon could not measure the power being spent, but the pattern was clear. Destroying junctions would not cripple the army while Nethren remained connected to it. Repeated disruptions could still force him to choose between restoring distant creatures and protecting the growth around his own body.

Hizon marked the observation beside the three junction sites. The valley defenders did not need to reach Nethren yet. They needed to create enough separate failures that even a Dungeon Master standing inside the network could not answer all of them at once.

The fungal Dungeon Master advanced for the first time.

His presence changed the creatures around him. Damp shields thickened. Injured guards pulled broken limbs beneath their bodies and continued moving. Moths gathered above him in a rotating cloud that carried spores away from the remaining flames.

Nethren stopped before the first streambed.

The growth did not cross the wet gravel. Carriers entered it and slowed as water filled the openings in their bodies. The fungal Dungeon Master placed one hand against the ground.

Dark plates formed beneath the water.

They overlapped from one bank to the other, creating a surface above the streambed. White cords spread across the new bridge without touching the water.

Hizon had expected the streambed to delay the network. Nethren had spent his own power to remove the obstacle.

That was more useful than watching another cheap creature die.

"Prepare the second strip." Brannik ordered.

The Trappers uncovered the protected controls. The goblin king moved closer to the first line, and the strength of his aura settled over its defenders. Goblins adjusted shields that had grown easier to carry. Archers drew bows with greater force.

The fungal army crossed the dark bridge.

Moths moved ahead of it and released a dense cloud above the first barrier. The goblin masks filtered much of the dust, but visibility vanished. Shapes moved inside the gray air without clear outlines.

Brannik did not fire blindly.

He ordered the archers to kneel and sent three goblins along the prepared retreat lane. Each dragged a hooked chain at ankle height. The chains caught fungal legs inside the cloud. The goblins behind the barrier thrust spears toward the disturbance instead of aiming at shapes they could not see.

The first creatures fell before reaching the wall.

Then something much larger struck the barrier.

Packed earth broke inward. A broad animal covered in shelf-like growths forced its head through the opening. Six heavy legs followed, crushing the smaller fungal creatures trapped beneath it. Its body had the shape of a beetle, but pale cords bound plates of stone and dead wood across its shell.

The creature widened the breach.

Brannik’s first defensive line could stop guards. It could not hold against a living siege engine while moth dust blinded the archers.

He ordered the retreat before Hizon spoke.

The goblins withdrew through the marked lanes. Trappers closed narrow breaks behind them, while Bombardier Beetles released short bursts to discourage pursuit. The goblin king remained near the rear until every surviving crew passed the second line.

Nethren did not rush after them.

His carriers entered the abandoned ground. White cords spread across the first barrier, into the oil pit, and through the soil surrounding the ruined junction. Fungal growth covered the positions his army had paid to claim.

Hizon checked the battle display.

The first line had defeated far more creatures than it lost. The enemy had revealed its junctions, its response to fire, its method for crossing water, and one of its siege creatures.

The valley still contained one prepared defensive line and the passage leading into the Ant Hill.

Hizon watched Nethren place a hand against the broken barrier. Dark material filled the burned portions, turning the captured position into protection for the next wave.

The enemy had taken the first line.