Trash Mountain Dungeon

Uther knew his life until now was far from terrible, a blessedly competent heir, a few daughters to marry away, and two spares in case Arthur should ever die or prove himself inadequate. However, he knew it would still have its many troubles, chief among them was his second son, Edward. Edward's mother was an old adventurer guard turned lover of his during his youthful days of hunting bandits and playing hero to the small folk, she was, is, still very much the love of his life, despite the controversy that came with it. Edward's mother was Alcina Du Franc, a mixed-blood human hailing from the southern reaches of the empire, a place dominated by conquered demi-humans and the mortal descendants of demons and devils. But despite the rumors and discourse it started, they stayed together, from blood and fire to sheets and roses, they would not break. But in the end, they did break, not from a loss of love nor a bitter end, but under the weight of responsibility.

Uther's life until that point was one of freedom and joy, of traveling roads with the loot of local thieves or wandering lovestruck behind his beloved. But when his father died that ended, and before he could come to terms with the loss, he found himself betrothed to the daughter of a major trade partner and military ally of the Nightingales, the family that his now lady wife Gerviche came from and dumped with the expectation to produce an heir. At first, Uther did try to see if things would work out between himself and his new wife, truly he did, he bought her favorite perfumes and lavish silks imported from dungeons deep in the heart of the empire, and things did seem to improve for a while until Arthur was born at least.

When Arthur was born Gerviche went from a prim and proper lady wife to an eerily accurate vision of a banshee, screaming at the servants over the slightest infraction or perceived provocation, many a family did he compensate for her wrath. At first, he thought it was simply a lack of attention or even some kind of hysteria but no matter the gifts or excitement he brought into their home, nothing was good enough, so Edward was born.

It was 25 years ago by his count, passing through the cobbled streets of Lensburg, one of his more developed villages, that Alcina and himself reignited their old flame, a poor choice considering his so-called wife, but that point lost little love. It was then that things started to slip into place in his mind, both as a lord and as a man, he was happy not with the prim and proper ladies and lords, but with the people, with the wilds. Adventuring taught him to dislike silk and appreciate the simple gruel his people would often get by with when they couldn't buy or grow more food, and he learned that life and love of elaborate and extravagant gifts and foods were meaningless to him. He wanted the food of people who appreciated every bite, not just because some inner court expert made it, he wanted to roam the wilds with his soldiers, meet his people, and command them with shared respect, and he wanted to give meaning to love.

But things weren't that simple of course, life never is, and he remained married to his wife and even sired a few more children, some he was sure weren't actually his but both of them were beyond reconciling, and they both knew it. What did come from this realization was a renewed sense of purpose, his people would have more than gruel, and no monsters to fear at night, and so after he dug up some of his father's early plans for the people. Many of the plans were unfeasible but others had some use, standardized units, essential education, and a way of controlling the merchants were some of the ideas he was able to implement, he would have used more but the strange language his father wrote in was always impossible for him to decipher, even with the assistance of foreign peoples and scholars.

This leads to the current day as he enters the family manor after a week's journey, greeted by his wait staff and the few children he knew to be his.

"Welcome back, lord father."

It was Odessa that greeted him, his oldest daughter and unofficial lady of the manor, her mother long since abandoning her duties to the place in favor of being a social butterfly, currying favor with friends over tea and discussing gossip.

"The manor is yours again Father, also, Harland and I have news to discuss with you in your solar once you are ready."

She was shaping up to be a fine woman, it was a shame that she was already set to marry a year from now, his two older sons and her would have made a powerful team. Handing off his traveling equipment and then changing into his daily clothes, he returned to his solar where he resumed the never-ending paperwork of his domain, a light snack of dried fruit to keep his spirits out of the infernal realm. Odessa was the first one to speak.

"While you were sending Arthur away Harland and I were able to finish your orders when you left, we prepared two hosts of varying peoples for relocation. They are primarily tradespeople who would be needed to establish new villages and outposts, also, we have prepared a small contingent of soldiers to accompany them, a sum of 80 militia."

"Very good my daughter, if your brothers are on schedule then we'll be ready to send these people out in four months."

Harland, his steward, spoke up as soon as Uther had finished.

"About that milord, we received a letter from Edward soon after you left, it remains unopened, but I assume it to be of great importance given it was carried by one of your son's... creatures."

Harland's discomfort with Ed's summons was an understandable issue, but Harland was also smart enough to keep his mouth shut. Taking the letter and combing through it, Uther felt his blood begin to rush, an intelligent dungeon, at only level 2! Hmmm, likely his son was already moving to work around that fact, but it was still troubling news. Intelligent dungeons couldn't be collared like normal ones and there was no way he was bending over to those pompous, self-righteous, arrogant-!

Breathe in, and out.

The church was not an option and would remain that way for the foreseeable future. Knowing his boy, he was likely to try to communicate with the dungeon, assuming it learned that particular skill, meaning that he'd have to be ready for the fallout of Edward's actions, good or bad.

Hmmm.

"Odessa, prepare another 200 men as well as send guild master Ghuul an invitation for a meeting, I need his adventurers just in case. Harland, I want you to begin sending letters to the towns and villages to prepare for monster attacks and have our scouts keep an eye on anything coming from the north, at the first sight of monster hordes I want my people evacuated to the nearest town or fort."

They seemed momentarily shocked by my orders but quickly composed themselves and got to action when I dismissed them. While Edward was a skilled fighter and mage, negotiation was not a skill they taught at the academy, nor one you cultivated as a dungeon suppressor, Uther would prepare for any potential dungeon break.

Looking at a wide map of his lands, he had few developed settlements or outposts that far north, the only ones currently at risk were the small farming communities nestled there, too small to be noted on the map but existing, nonetheless. If the dungeon broke and let out its monstrous creations, he would need to make sure they would be able to get away, the problem was that these communities were strictly not his responsibility, they were unsanctioned by any land grants and did not pay taxes, as far as the law was concerned, he had more reason to hang them than save them. But that old adventurer in him told him otherwise, they lived on his land so he had a duty to them, he'd have a few scouts start rounding them up and sending them south so they could integrate with the existing villages.

A few days later he held a meeting with his long-time friend, the guild master of the region's Adventurer's guild, Guild master Ramoul Ghuul.

"So, lord Uther, seems you have a dungeon problem."

Ramoul was also one of the most annoying people he knew. The things he did for duty.