Lewd Dungeon, Book 21 Prologue (Patreon)

Prologue – Trade Chat

(Galactic DEN Forums)

General Dungeon Chat

Furiosa

OK,   something weird just happened. A group of adventurers on my fifteenth floor   just got declared dungeon foes in the middle of the boss fight, and I didn’t   do it.

Yudadr

That’s   funny. Same thing just happened to me. Two different parties, and one member   of a third one. They’d always been model adventurers before, too.

Treaydo-zar

Wait,   what? That happened to me, too!

Poydad   Cells

No   way! I just had a group of regulars   show up as dungeon foes when they entered my influence.

Udarlandia

It   happened to me, too!

Furiosa

So,   this is happening all over? Anyone know what the hell is going on? Did the   System glitch?

Varanidix

Don’t   even joke like that. The System didn’t glitch. It may get knocked off line,   temporarily, but it never glitches.

Genestealer

So if   it isn’t a glitch, what happened? I know for a fact that Furiosa and Yudadr are   in different spiral arms, so it can’t be anything local.

Treetop

True. With   so many similar events (including one in my own dungeon) happening at once,   the adventurers have to be linked somehow. It is the only explanation that   makes any sense!

Hodarn   Pass

Hmm.   The only thing connecting the ones in my dungeon were that they were both followers   of Pofmis.

Furiosa

Mine   too.

Poydad   Cells

Hold   on, my regulars were Pofmisians, too!

Black   Knight

Sounds   like someone decided they’d had enough of those sanctimonious assholes, and   decided to spank them.

Night   Haunter

Hmm. You   mean someone decided to strike against the Church of Pofmis itself? Bold.

Theocracy’s   Might

Who   would do such a horrible thing? Pofmis is one of the greatest forces of the   Light!

Grisly   Nursery

Actually,   I’m sure there’s plenty of people here who would, if they could. Especially   with Pofmis.

Night   Haunter

Yeah, they   are rather pushy whenever you have bound or contracted creatures in your dungeon.

Grisly   Nursery

Except   they only care if they are ‘civilized’ creatures. Monsters and demons can be   enslaved all day long, and they don’t care. Hell, some of the Pofmisians in   my dungeon are Monster Trainers and Demon Tamers.

Hedar’s   Winnowing

The   Head Priest in my dungeon town is a Pofmisian, and routinely visits the   brothel staffed by a group of succubi enslaved by a pair of warlocks. It is   an open secret in the town, since several of my adventurers have seen him in   there.

Theocracy’s   Might

What?   That… that cannot be! Stop spreading this heresy at once!

Yudadr

Oh,   shut up you brainwashed buffoon. No one cares about you or your religious   nonsense!

Freedom’s   Requiem

As   much as I am happy that those assholes are getting what is coming to them, I   am interested in knowing what caused all this. It has certainly made defending   my halls from zealots easier.

Black   Knight

Hmm. I   might have an idea. Dungeon I met through the DEN had some interesting ideas   on how to apply punishments to people who did things I didn’t like.

Night   Haunter

Such   as?

Black Knight

Well,   for instance, the country I’m in is pretty heavily devoted to Pofmis, and   they were sending in people with Soulstealers to try and steal one of my bound   creatures for ‘judgement’. You know how they get, especially if the bound creature   is a former Paladin.

Furiosa

Ooh,   yeah, I can imagine they were persistent. What happened?

Black   Knight

I had   to put the girl up on the DEN, since I was running out of ways to deal with   them. I reached out to the dungeon that bought her, just to warn them, you   know? We traded some ideas on defense and some low-level patterns.

Anyway,   one of that dungeon’s ideas was to apply Taboo to people who brought Soulstealers,   and have it apply to organizations, instead of individuals.

Furiosa

What   does that mean?

Night   Haunter

It   means that if, say, a follower of Pofmis brought a Soulstealer into the   dungeon, and broke the Taboo, the penalty could be applied to all followers   of Pofmis who entered the dungeon.

Treaydo-zar

Oh,   shit. I see where this is going.

Black   Knight

Yeah.   Taboo only affects people going to a single dungeon. Once you step out of   that dungeon, it goes away, until you go back into that dungeon. A Taboo in   my dungeon wouldn’t affect someone going into Freedom’s Requiem’s dungeon.

Freedom’s   Requiem

But   someone managed to figure out how to make it stick? Who is this dungeon?

Black   Knight

Let me   see if they’ll talk.

Furiosa

Oh,   man. This is huge. This could literally reshape the structures of power in   the galaxy, you know.

Udarlandia

Yeah, we   dungeons are basically the cornerstone to gaining experience outside of   military battles for a lot of organizations. An organization that can’t go into   dungeons is going to eventually find themselves outmatched by those that can.

Night   Haunter

If   that is what they intended, then that dungeon has a very devious mind. I’m   impressed.

Exotic   Pleasures

Well,   I thank you, Night Haunter. Between Kuronoth and myself, I think we’ve really   thrown a wrench in the Pofmisians’ wheels.

Freedom’s   Requiem

Wait,   YOU are the one Black Knight was talking about? You magnificent bastard! I’ve   already been loving the Kuronoth stuff you put on the DEN, but now I have you   to thank for helping me crush those bitches? You are the BEST!

Exotic   Pleasures

Yes,   that was me, and Kuronoth. Oh, and Requiem, if you happen to have Kuronoth   enshrined in your dungeon, you’ll find that Pofmisians are now Anathema to   Kuronoth, and a few other gods.

Furiosa

Anathema?   What does that do?

Grand   Library

The effect   increases damage done by the selected divine entity and creatures sworn to   them by 25% when attacking an Anathema, and decreases damage done by an   Anathema to those creatures by 25%. Also, there are specialized spells that   can only be used on Anathemas.

Exotic   Pleasures

Exactly.   That was the work of Kuronoth. The Dungeon Foe part, on the other hand,   obviously came from my ability as a dungeon.

Treetop

But   how is it affecting people not in your dungeon?

Exotic   Pleasures

Because,   before a group of Pofmisians entered the dungeon in force, Kuronoth got them   to swear, three times, that this was the third attempt by their church to   damage or destroy my dungeon and wipe him out. Using that, Kuronoth applied   Anathema to the entire church of Pofmis. As part of that, I also applied the   Dungeon Foe title to the entire church of Pofmis. Both things are titles, so   they aren’t limited to my dungeon.

Theocracy’s   Might

The   forces of light will not stand for this! They’ll destroy you!

Exotic   Pleasures

The   Church of Pofmis just sent 700 members of their Golden Host after me,   including a Crusader-Champion. The only ones to escape only did so by foreswearing   their oaths and making binding contracts with me, if not forsaking Pofmis   altogether and turning to the worship of Kuronoth.

I’ll take my chances.