Lewd Dungeon, Chapter 439 (Patreon)

Chapter 439 – Bounties

Since they were still fairly unfamiliar with the Upper City, and did not have good knowledge of where the weaker combatants of the other houses might be loitering, Catalina decided to start their hunt by going to the [House Bounty Board]. After all, the bounty would show up in a general area of the city map their badges displayed. That would give them a place to start, rather than just searching blindly throughout the city.

House Bounty Board

Target

Description

Aien Oritoris

Combatant for House Ilzor

High Knelfi Male

Level 25 Holy Liberator / Blessed Protector

Leader of a small squad (3) of holy knights seeking to combat slavery in all its forms. All four individuals are skilled defenders, attackers, and healers. Their distaste for the demonic makes them focus on House Throk in the Games.

Reward: 1000 Points for Oritoris, 500 points each for his followers.

Taaccil

Combatant for House Nahlans

High Dogik Female

Level 46 Soulflame Sorceress / Soulforger Golem Crafter

Powerful magic caster who captures the souls of the fallen, and forces them into golem bodies to fight for her. The golems gain experience with every fight, even if the souls powering them are reclaimed, unless the body is destroyed. Priority target.

Reward: 200000 Points for Taaccil, 50000 points each per golem destroyed.

Dylan Walker

Combatant for House Vomhur

High Human Male

Level 23 Blademaster Fighter / Master Commander

A recent addition to House Vomhur’s mercenary forces. Walker and his 5 party members are a well-rounded, if unimpressive, adventuring group. Teamwork metrics suggest high damage potential if left unchecked.

Reward: 1000 Points per party member.

Buzzod Gravelbraids

Combatant for House Dren

High Rodaini Male

Level 40 Greater Gearmaster / Master Siegecrafter

Chief of House Dren’s siege weapons division. Has contributed highly to their placement in the last three Games, including allowing them to win in the last Game. Due to the nature of his abilities, any siege machine he crafted will lose 50% of its power if he is eliminated, greatly diminishing Dren’s chances in this Game. Priority Target.

Reward: 150000 Points for Buzzod, extra rewards for any schematics or prototypes recovered, adjudicated by Scorekeepers.

Keiko Dusktail

Combatant for House Aslin

High Fimaazro Female

Level 35 Spirtsword Swashbuckler / Arcane Blade

While not Aslin’s most powerful warrior, Keiko is their most versatile, as the Spiritsword her class wields is able to shape itself to fit any engagement, and her profession allows her to cast spells through her blade like a spellsword. Has personally contributed to four Aslin victories in the Games.

Reward: 3000 Points

Edea Dortoris

Combatant for House Vomhur

High Knelfi Female

Level 21 Blackshield Warcaster / Battleslave Commander

Leader of the Blackshield Mercenaries, with twenty battleslaves under her command, all accomplished combatants in their own right. Eliminating the Blackshields will open a critical hole in Vomhur’s defenses.

Reward: 3000 Points for Edea, 500 for each Battleslave.

Rosie Pearce

Combatant for House Nahlans

Flameborn High Human Female

Level 30 Frostfire Sorceress / Healer

Fresh recruit for House Nahlans. Leader of a party of six adventurers, with a fighter, rogue, ranger, priest, and spellsword. Exact capabilities unknown.

Reward: 1000 Points per party member.

Zalit Ilzor

Combatant for House Ilzor

High Dogik Male

Level 3 Shadowsilk Warrior / Curseforger

Youngest scion of House Ilzor’s main family, newly eligible for the Games. Slaughtering him will greatly affect Ilzor morale, and may shatter Zalit’s confidence moving forward. House Ilzor knows this, and has surrounded him with House Guards.

Reward: 15000 Points for Zalit, 1000 points per House Guard.

Aki

Combatant for House Aslin

High Fimaazro Male

Level 30 Catspaw Bonecrusher / Master Poisoncrafter

A skilled combatant from the Monk class line, Aki combines martial arts with poison attacks. In the period between Games he restricts himself to nondamaging poisons, with a preference for sleep and paralysis, but in the Games his poisons are as lethal as they come. Removing him from the board early is recommended.

Reward: 12000 Points for Aki, plus use of any poisons recovered during the Games.

Druczud

Combatant for House Dren

High Dogik Female

Level 33 Soulforging Magitech Knight / Master Combat Pilot

Commander of House Dren’s Magitech Knights, Commander Druczud can be found piloting his magitech combat armor around the Upper City, looking for combatants to take out.

Reward: 20000 Points for Druczud, with an additional 100000 if you are able to force him onto House Throk’s side for the current Game.

There were a couple hundred bounty requests on the board, but a few stuck out from the rest. High profile targets, either because of their position, their power, or what they meant as individuals. For instance, Dylan Walker and Rosie Pearce were clearly the leaders of adventuring groups, like hers, who had earned the qualifications to take part in the raid. And they were on different teams.

“So,” Ryan said, “the Lord really is splitting everyone up into different teams for this raid. Meaning it is less of a ‘raid’, as we would know it, and more like a general melee, or playing as teams in a wargame. That could be problematic, depending on what happens.”

“Not just teams in a wargame,” Jonathan said, shaking his head. “We aren’t even team leads. We’re foot soldiers, not commanders. Except that House Throk likes to allow units to take their own initiative, so long as everyone works together.”

Charity nodded. “I’ve been talking with the trainers, and one of them let something slip. House Throk has won four of the last ten games, like we’ve heard, but part of those wins were agreements with other houses. Namely, House Alsin and House Nahlans.”

Catalina looked at her rogue, “Win trading? Are you sure?”

“I checked the records, afterwards. Over the last twenty-four Games, House Alsin has won twelve, none of them consecutively, while House Throk has won five, House Nahlans has won six, and House Ilzor has won one. Since their win twenty-four Games ago, Ilzor hasn’t been in the top three for any Game since. And in all but that one Ilzor won, Alsin, Halans, and Throk mostly traded the top three positions amongst themselves.”

“It makes sense,” Dante said. “The three houses are all invested in the status quo, meaning that none of them exactly care who rules the city, so long as their personal projects don’t get interfered with. Alsin and Throk directly profit from the slave trade. Throk and Nahlans both delve into magical secrets, looking for new and interesting capabilities. Nahlans and Alsin both seek to draw in crafters with great ability, due to the nature of their forces. None of them focus on fields that directly touch the others, and all three have mostly done a ‘live and let live’ approach, in the Games themselves. Their low-level combatants still go champion hunting, as evidenced by the bounty board, but in the Games themselves, the three houses work to eliminate the other three, first.”

“But why put the bounties up at all?” Ryan asked. “Or, if there’s some reason to have a bounty on one of those two houses, why make the rates seem normal compared to all the other bounties?”

Catalina remembered something she’d heard on their first full day in the Upper City. “The [House Bounty Board] is actually linked to all the other boards. Every bounty posted is open to anyone, and the contribution points are awarded by the house of the one who makes the kill. The board here at House Throk’s headquarters won’t show bounties on our own house, unless you’re higher-ranked, letting house officials know who the other houses will be targeting, and weighting their scorekeeping accordingly. Either way, the boards are all linked. Supposedly, it makes it harder for collusion to happen, since everyone can see the bounties, which means someone will notice if a bounty is posted on a key player for 20 points, while individuals from other houses have higher than normal payouts.”

Dante nodded. “However, it gives everyone plausible deniability. ‘See, we’re all hunting champions during the pre-Game period! No collusion here!’ Any signs that the three houses are leaving each other alone can then be explained as strategy, and focusing on certain threats first.”

Charity nodded. “That’s how it goes. Nahlans and Dren are close, but also rivals, because of how they’re both researchers and tinkerers. Nahlans is never the first to go after Dren, because of that. Alsin, as the largest House, has close ties with Vomhur, who is basically the lead economic force in the city, which is why they rarely are the first house Alsin strikes, unless they are particularly vulnerable. And Throk never attacks the same House first two Games in a row, making them look equally adversarial. And sometimes you will have a ‘failed attack’ by one house, which draws another house out of position or sets them up for a strike.”

Catalina nodded. “Then, we should make a decision on who we’ll be going for. We still have a week to work on the bounties, before the Games begin, but I think we can agree that targeting the strongest foes, with the highest payouts, is a bad idea, until we get a better handle on the capabilities being wielded, and test our new abilities in live combat.”

Ryan took a breath, and said, “We should skip the Taaccil bounty. She’s got eight levels on us, and her magic looks to be heavily focused around Soul Magics. Which are going to cut through most common defenses like a [Hellfire Blade] spell through butter. That’s a lot of risk. High potential reward, sure, but not worth the risk, especially if Throk, Nahlans, and Alsin do have back-channel agreements.”

Dante nodded. “If we’re doing that, then lets just go ahead and nix all the Nahlans and Alsin bounties. Keep them as ‘targets of opportunity’, if we see something too good to be true, but spend our efforts hunting the prizes our sponsors actually want us taking out of the fight. Especially since we can’t rule out the idea that Charity was allowed to know about the collusion, to see how we would react.”

Charity nodded once. “I had considered that, but even with my [Sense Motive] skill, I’m well aware that the kind of ‘social sneaks’ the House is likely to have would have been able to slip something past me, regardless. That said, I agree we should drop the Alsin and Nahlans ones. Also, the Buzzod one is one we should probably skip, unless we are supremely lucky and find him on his own, leaving a safe zone. Because otherwise, I doubt we’ll be fighting just him, but more likely him, and a tank platoon. And we don’t have tanks.”

Catalina winced. “Yes, and while we are at it, let’s skip the one for the magitech knight. That sounds like he’ll be piloting some kind of advanced power armor or mecha, which has far too many potential problems for me to feel comfortable about the fight until we’ve seen how it works, at least a little.”

Jonathan frowned. “Magitech Knight was the class those space power rangers that visited the Lord’s dungeon had, right? Or something like it?” He took a breath, and said, “I’d rather not have to deal with a power ranger with an Iron Man suit, thanks.”

Catalina looked back at the [House Bounty Board]. “In that case, out of the interesting jobs, we have four bounties left. Two each from Ilzor and Vomhur. The squad of Holy Liberators from Ilzor will probably be hunting us anyways, once they see us on the bounty board, so we might as well hunt them, too. And, while we’re at it, we can make a play on the noble in his first Game. Especially considering how his guards are priced, which looks similar to the liberator captain and the two Earth teams.”

Ryan nodded. “And the two Vomhur bounties? Like the one with the Adventurer team?”

Catalina grinned. “We’ll take them, too. Normally, killing another adventurer team in the dungeon would be a blacklist offense, but since no one is actually going to die? We can make sure that their skills are up to the test.”