Wildkin [70]
The lack of response from Silva has had me worried. Initially I thought he might be in trouble, but upon looking in his territory I found him behaving normally. What isn't normal is the population of creatures he's communicating with. They're not human, and I certainly didn't create them.
So, naturally I decided to pay Silva a visit.
Birds chirping and the quiet breeze rustling the highbark tree’s branches makes for peaceful ambiance. There's no urgency in the woods. Nothing is amiss with the local wildlife, despite the new creature's appearance.
I find Silva a minute or so of walking later. His tall antlers make him stick out among the group of creatures he's speaking to. I get a closer look at them as I approach. They're bipedal, and covered in fur. Their tails are bushy and remind me of a squirrel's. Their faces are quite similar to a squirrel's as well, except scaled up to fit their body. Each one is about the size of a child.
"Monster!" A shrill voice squeals.
The tiny furred creatures run and duck behind nearby trees. Silva turns around with a stern expression, only to stop and stiffen upon seeing me approaching him. He clears his throat and quickly turns to call out to the small fluffy creatures.
"It is alright! This is no monster, this is Mother, my creator."
"Father's creator?!"
"Grandma!"
"Not monster!"
I watch with wide eyes as the bipedal squirrel creatures come rushing back out from their hiding places to approach me. The little things are quite grabby, poking and touching my cloak and limbs like they're trying to commit every aspect of me to memory.
"Children, calm down! Do not bother Mother!"
The bushy tailed creatures back off somewhat, but a few are still absentmindedly holding onto my cloak. I find myself laughing a bit at the situation. Silva is blushing, bowing his head as if he's been caught hiding a stray dog in his room.
"What is all this, Silva?" I ask between laughs.
"Well, Mother, I have decided to follow in your footsteps."
Silva says this with a stern serious air about him. Unfortunately the squirrel creatures completely ruin the mood, several of them chasing each other around in circles while one sucks its paw beside me. Silva takes a deep breath before continuing.
"These are wildkin, my children, a creation of my own mana."
My brows raise high as I look down at the wildkin holding my cloak. Silva created these all on his own? He took nothing but an idea in his head and mana, and created a group of little beings capable of speaking and moving all on their own?
"Incredible..."
"I-I know this probably isn't what you had in mind for me to do-"
"No, Silva. This is amazing! As your mother I can say I'm overjoyed to see you take this step!"
I'm grinning from ear to ear as I reach out and gently pat the head of a wildkin. The little fuzz ball is sucking on its paw like a baby animal, and it takes everything I have not to squeal in delight. The urge to pick them up and hug them close is tantalizing.
"You approve, Mother?"
Nodding, I look up to Silva with a proud smile. I never expected him to take this step all on his own. To do so is more than pleasing.
"This is something to celebrate. Have you decided where they will live?"
"Actually, I was hoping you would help with that, Mother."
Now that is a nice surprise! I've already had thoughts on a forest dwelling species, and part of me wanted to let the gremlins progress into a more recognizable civilization. Speaking of the gremlins--I'd best check on them. I've not spoken to Gu in what feels like months!
That can wait for after I help Silva. For now I need to come up with a good place for the wildkin to call home. I could just have them make homes in the Wildwood, but this place feels far too dangerous for the adorably fuzzy little beings. They need a sanctuary--like Gremlin Grotto is to gremlins. I turn to one of the wildkin sitting close to me.
"Excuse me, little one, where would you like to live?"
I bite back a squeal of excitement as the wildkin tilts its head up to look at me. Its eyes are both dark brown, resembling the eyes of a squirrel in their richness. It points up to the trees above without actually saying anything.
"So the trees. Silva, do you mind looking after them until I finish their home? I'll need some time to put everything together."
"Not at all, Mother! I'll be sure to keep them out of trouble."
The sound of something crashing through the brush behind us is enough to send Silva running. He hollers at the wildkin like a slightly irate father, his staff and hooves thumping against the dirt as he trundles off.
"Hey! Stop that you little ruffians, you'll hurt yourselves!"
With that, I take my leave.
The familiar serenity of the core chamber greets me. The trickle of the canals flowing with water, the rustling of the leaves in the ventilated air. I take a deep breath before sneaking into my true core chamber.
Blue light illuminated the homely interior of the true core room. I move past my bed and some knick knacks I've long since left on shelves, stepping up to my core. The thing is quite large by now--roughly the size of a watermelon.
Reaching out, I grab ahold of my core.
Now that I'm freed of my body I move to a space beneath Woodrin--the forest dungeon--and begin my work. The first step is clearing space. I've got more than enough mana to do as much as I feel is necessary, so I can go big. Two kilometers high, big. The width is only a single kilometer, forming a tall space supported by voidium embedded in the walls.
The next step is the rough terrain. What I'm envisioning is entirely comprised of living wood, so my approach needs to be a bit unusual here. Rather than creating a landscape I start by cooking up a new kind of plant. In the past I've used half baked methods for large tree structures. Gremlin Grotto is full of roots that aren't actually roots, simply false dead wood I made from mana. I'm going to change that by creating a kind of wood that lives while being shaped like clay, rather than growing traditionally in the shape of a tree.
My time creating and observing plants comes in handy here. I'm not creating a tree, but rather dense plant matter that appears to be the trunk of a tree. If cut away it will not die. If squeezed and bent it will not deform. If anything it resembles a fungus--one mass of an organism, yet not limited by needing to be whole. I call it shaping wood.
Now that I have shaping wood handy, creating the terrain I want is as easy as moving around my mana. I condense my mana into shaping wood, and that shaping wood I mold into towering trees so vast and tall they resemble sky scrapers. Truly monstrous looking towers of living plant matter. I don't add branches not roots, simply knots and an organic shape of a tree's mid trunk.
For the canopy and the ground? Illusions. At least for now. I paint the surrounding walls, floor, and ceiling in sky rock. The space is transformed. Instead of a strange vast cavern with shaping wood pillars the size of sky scrapers, it is now a forest of mind boggling magnitude. The illusions make it appear as if high above there is a vast green canopy, and far below a rooted ground with rich soil. The sides of the chamber appear to expand into a cloudy forest, but the effect is simply the space looping on itself.
In order to traverse this level there needs to be walkable areas. I intend to leave most of the layout up to the wildkin who will call this place home, but to get things started I first carve out a room in the middle of the center most tree. Here I construct the door, connecting this place to the still destroyed antechamber. Fixing up the antechamber is something I should have done earlier, as even if the door is completely unusable for adventurers I can still use the antechamber myself when I please.
Of course as it stands the wildkin won't have an easy way to get to other levels of Woodrin. They could use the antechamber, but I'd prefer to give them exclusive passages that invaders wouldn't ever get near--as preparation for when I reconstruct the door.
I carve small wildkin sized tunnels connecting the door chamber and another hollow space. I leave several tunnels as dead ends, intended for the wildkin to expand freely. One burrow near the center of the tree isn't as it seems.
Using a hefty dose of mana I stitch the burrow to Wildwood, making it so that if one were to crawl through the tunnel they'd wind up emerging from the base of a highbark tree near the center of the forest. Thick foliage shrouds the tunnel mouth. For good measure I go ahead and expand the same burrow, letting it branch so it can be traveled further to Swarm Forest.
While I would like to connect all the levels of Woodrin eventually, right now the wildkin are but newborn beings. They can't possibly enter Darkwick, and I worry what might happen if they mingle with the gremlins too early. Flathoof Haven is out of the question--Those massive beasts would smash wildkin too easily. Possibly by accident, even.
Now for the final touches to the wildkin home. There needs to be good sources of food and water, along with a safeguard so fallen wildkin don't end up dying like an unwary adventurer.
To deal with the issue of water I do two things. First, I double check that the illusory sky produces rain as it has in other levels. Grand storms and misty rains can occur here to provide some much needed moisture. Second, I create artificial streams running through the gigantic pseudo trees. It is as simple as carving a rough path through the tree, placing a water rock at the top, and a sponge rock at the bottom. Water, gravity, and the shaping wood do the rest.
Food sources require only a little bit of mana. I've already got suitable fungus growing in Gremlin Grotto I can plant along the outside and inside of the mega trees. Moss and lichen coat parts of the wood. I even take the edible roots from Gremlin Grotto and plant them in the interior spaces of the false tree.
Meat might be on the menu for wildkin, so I am adding animals too. Birds native to Woodrin--colorful songbirds--as well as great hawks are introduced to the gigantic forest. Smaller bugs and tree friendly animals too. For safety reasons I ensure the great hawks are nested in areas far from where the wildkin will spend most of their time.
On a whim I add swarmers as well, but I don't place them on the same false tree as the wildkin. They're occupying a few of the trees a good distance away.
With food and water handled that leaves just safety. I'd rather not do anything too obtuse such as teleporting or letting the wildkin land safely on the ground despite it looking like a terrifyingly long drop. Instead, I add wind.
More specifically I add an obelisk deep at the base of the central false tree. Upon it I carve runes, and with them a special condition is given. If any wildkin is to fall toward the normally lethal void below they will instead be pushed up back toward the height they belong by wings of dizzying strength. It won't be perfectly comfortable, but it should prevent many deaths while still making falling an unpleasant and memorable experience. I don't want the wildkin thinking it's safe to just leap off high places, after all.
With the level complete it is time to name it.
Perhaps I should let a wildkin do the honors, since it will be their home?