Peek: Tyrant Lizard Queen (Patreon)

Sue lays next to the spawner, the compies swarming and playing around her as she thinks. Teemo said a lot of the new scions need some time to adjust, and she wonders if she's going through that, or even more. Or something slightly different, even.

Teemo told her not to worry too much about her name, but that's one of the few things that makes sense to her. It's a simple name, one that speaks of wonder and learning. When she heard the names of the other scions, it made sense for some of them to be worried about them. How does someone live up to the name of Nova?

Her own issue isn't really from her name, but her species and new type. She knows it's new, and she also knows that shouldn't even be possible, yet here she is, thinking in circles because of it. Yet even more than the type is her species: Tyrant Lizard Monarch, the undisputed ruler of the dinosaurs.

Yet as she watches the compies play, she doesn't feel particularly tyrannical. But shouldn't she be? How could the dungeon give her a name of learning when she's supposed to be some rampaging despot? Was that the whole point of the name, to temper her?

If so, she thinks it's working. Or perhaps she didn't need any tempering in the first place? She doesn't feel any need to oppress the compies, to bend them to her whim. She certainly could, if she wanted. They're pretty simple spawns, and she doesn't doubt they'd do whatever she told them to.

But she doesn't see any need. For now, they're slowly building numbers as the dungeon prepares a place on the surface for them, or maybe prepares the underground for them. It's difficult to tell, and she doesn't want to bother Teemo and take more of his time with something that will be out of her control anyway.

She honestly appreciates having some time to herself to think. That seems to be normal for the scions, at least. Several have approached her and made friendly introductions, but none are trying to pressure her to any action. It seems their dungeon is a lot to take in.

She stands and takes a shortcut, a trail of compies streaming behind her as she explores. She doesn't leave the compressed space, but she can still explore the dungeon while remaining hidden, as she was asked. It boggles the mind to see what the dungeon has made.

From a simple manor to a maze of hedges and web, a sprawling system of tunnels to a series of large caverns, the gauntlets to the lava labyrinth, the crypt complex, the cemetery, the forest of four seasons, the tree of cycles... and the roots. Each section carefully planned and maintained, laid out in a way to seem both haphazard and meticulous.

It's wonderful and terrifying, considering it was all done in just over a year. All of this should have taken a century or more, and yet the dungeon has created and curated such an eclectic and amazing collection of sections, each drawing their own variety of delver.

She rumbles a quiet chuckle as one thing starts to make sense to her: that almost each scion has a different term for the dungeon. Boss, Emperor, Composer, Guide, and more, and she's going to be calling him by her own term, too. It's probably a bit of influence from her name, but she likes the connotations, and sees a role for herself within it.

Curator Thedeim, for he has gathered so much to see, and wants to show it to all who are interested. She herself is one of the marvelous exhibits, still being prepared to be put on display. Yet she is no mere showpiece. A Curator keeps and protects the precious things, and she will eagerly help protect in every way she can.

The Curator has many scions who can fight, who focus on offense. He even has many who support, and ensure the fighters do so at their best. But none of the scions are prepared to step in and physically take the blows themself. But she can. Dinosaurs are strong, tough, and resistant. If anyone can take the hits that nobody else can, it will be her.

Isn't that what a monarch should do? Bear the weight others cannot, and protect those who need it. Her allies will not find her a tyrant, but her foes? She grins, her teeth on display. She doesn't mind if her foes call her a tyrant.