=========================================================== Dungeon Keeper Ranma
Chapter 06: Conversion
By A-kun
===========================================================
Ranma looked at the three women with a bit of confusion. They
certainly didn't look like what he'd imagine they would look like. He
had to be sure.
"The princesses, you say?" Ranma asked Lynn the Fairy.
Lynn nodded, "Oh yes. I met them a year ago, but they're
unmistakable. Those are King Reginald's daughters for sure. Relena is
the dark haired one, she's a priestess. Mina is the mage of the
family, she likes to wear red bows. And Honey is the oldest and she's
pretty strong."
"Well, if they're his daughters, I suppose it would be pretty bad
to torture them..." Ranma commented.
"Actually, Mina and Honey are pretty stuck up and I think Relena
needs a good solid fuck. Like Maidel's special. MMMMMmmmm...." Lynn
answered, before staring off into space while drooling a little.
Ranma stared at Lynn for a few seconds, then gazed over to
Maidel.
Maidel looked a bit offended, "What? You didn't like the more
vicious methods of torture, so that's what we do for most of the women.
The guys usually bend after a little hot coal treatment and promises of
better pay and better food, but if the mistress likes him, she'll give
him a little. But, you're my male lover, so I don't cheat."
Ranma pinched the bridge of his nose. He should have known,
considering her request a night ago.
"Anyway, I think we'll wait until we hear from Reginald." Ranma
responded.
King Reginald was, once again, furious. This time, even more so.
Seven knights of his land were standing before him, wearing Ranma's
emblem on their shields, while their leader, Michael, read Ranma's
demands, "...if you'll give me the other portal gems, I'll return your
daughters and restore your land to you. Signed, Keeper Ranma."
"Is this some kind of joke?" Timothy, Reginald's eldest son,
spoke up.
"No. He's willing to restore the kingdom and your sisters to
King Reginald if he can have the portal gems." Michael responded
evenly.
"NEVER! I'll see him and his fellow keepers DEAD! GUARDS,
ARREST THEM!" Reginald snarled.
The lead knight sighed heavily and shook his head, "You should
have listened."
With that, all seven knights disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"Wha...what sorcery was that?!" Daniel, the youngest son,
demanded.
"That's the power of a Keeper. He can call back any minion who
has sworn fealty to him, unless they are beaten or rendered
unconscious." King Reginald growled angrily.
"How's that work?" Daniel asked a nearby wizard in a quiet tone.
"Retraction spells are possible by all magic users, but the badly
injured or unconscious are difficult to locate and 'pull back' because
of their low lifeforce. It would be like trying to pick up butter,
much easier when it's solid." the wizard replied in an equally low
tone.
"Father, we aren't just going to let him keep Mina, Honey and
Relena, are we? Who knows what sick and perverse thing he might do!"
Anthony, the middle brother, spoke up.
King Reginald considered his options, "Contact Lord Pureheart!
Tell him to gather all the men he's trained and attack Ranma
immediately! Once he has my daughters, he is to pull back immediately.
We must gather more strength before we can face Ranma."
"No go, huh?" Ranma asked.
Michael shook his head, "The king flat out refused. More over, I
think he plans to attack soon, probably to get his daughters back. His
court had more warriors in it than usual."
Ranma nodded, "Only natural that he'd be gathering strength to
face off against me. Well, if he's not going to do this the easy way,
I guess I've got no real choice, but to torture his daughters."
"What?!" Honey demanded as Michael left in a hurry. Lotus was
going to kill him if he was late for dinner. Meanwhile, the princess
was in the middle of an angry fit at the thought of Ranma even THINKING
of torturing her or her sisters. They were ROYALTY!
"It's either that or leave you in the prison to catch disease and
die, then become skeletons. Which would you rather choose? Live or
become a skeleton?" Ranma inquired.
Honey sputtered. Neither option seemed too pleasing. She
glanced at a rather evil looking rat and shuddered. She'd seen rats
before, but never evil looking rats that probably carried all manners
of disease.
"Torture chamber it is." Honey answered.
"I knew you'd see it my way." Ranma said, before chanting a sleep
spell.
Maidel blinked, "I didn't know you knew Sleep."
"I've been learning plenty of spells whenever I use Possession on
a spellcaster." Ranma responded, before summoning three imps and
motioning to the sleeping princesses, "Take them to the V.I.P. torture
chamber. Maidel, I'm trusting you with-... what?"
"And the imps... they don't look at hideous as they did before."
Maidel commented, motioning to the imps, which were more peach-colored
than green, with smaller eyes. Maidel could swear she saw a tuft of
red hair on one, "I think they're changing."
"You're... just... imagining things." Ranma replied hesistantly.
In truth, the imps had been changing a lot. Their bodies had grown a
bit while their heads shrank to a more proportional size. He had to
make a mental note to talk to Lundar about that.
"Anyway, I'm leaving you in charge of them. Be sure to give them
plenty of water. The last thing I want to hear is that they died of
dehydration. That would REALLY piss Reginald off." Ranma responded.
Maidel considered that.
News of the capture of Reginald's daughters had spread like
wildfire in an area with plenty ready to burn and more than enough
catalysts. And as such, it wasn't long before the less savory groups
heard of it.
To King Reginald's dismay, there were always sections of his
kingdom plagued with evil keepers. And like a virus, once you thought
you had it cornered, it changed and came back. There were three
keepers in particular that were especially annoying: Nemesis, Geld and
Ventrius.
Geld and Ventrius were newbies who just had a way of making the
King mad, mostly because they were a drunken ex-swordsmaster and a
fired archery teacher respectively. They'd both nearly killed their
pupils, the princes and Honey, on more than one occasion. Upon being
fired, they'd apparently found a pair of Dungeon Hearts and had taken
to pissing off the king by sending random attack waves that did little,
save annoy the king.
It hardly made for a good display when a merchant or a wandering
caravan came by and a bunch of drunken half-naked monsters stumbled at
them like a mob fresh from last call at a bar.
Of course, those were the creatures that both Geld and Ventrius
wanted dead, so their loss was minimal. Over a year after being fired,
Geld had sobered up and Ventrius had improved his instruction methods.
Both had garnered a large band of warriors fit for assaulting King
Reginald's castle, but they wanted to get back at the old man first.
And what better way than by capturing Reginald's daughters from a
fellow keeper?
Indeed, both keepers knew the risk was high, but if a smash-and-
grab operation had evan a half chance of success, they would gladly
take it.
Mina felt her sanity slipping. She'd been rotating on the wheel
for too long to remember and somehow, the water drops were perfectly
timed to hit her square in the forehead.
She knew there were no special apparatuses, as she could see
none. There was just a leaky ceiling.
Given the probability of a water drop falling on someone from the
ceiling, the likelyhood of it hitting someone in the head was one in
twenty. To hit the middle of the forehead was one in a hundred. There
were five drops per spin. YET EVERY ONE HIT HER SQUARE IN THE
FOREHEAD. It should not have been possible, but it was happening.
Relena was sweating heavily as her body spun near the hot coals
at the base of the wheel. Unlike Mina, her wheel was mounted on the
wall and it wasn't her sanity that she was questioning, it was her
mental and physical endurance. She was all but ready to give in. Only
her faith that her father would launch a rescue mission kept her from
breaking. And it was only the fact that her hair was kept magically in
place that her long brown hair wasn't already on fire.
Honey was in a similar situation to Relena, but her wheel was
mounted on the ground like Mina's, and there was none of the relief
that Relena managed to enjoy briefly as her head was turned away from
the coals. The heat from the coals burned her back and brought her to
tears. She was so thirsty, not to mention hungry.
Maidel was sitting in plain view of the three sisters, eating a
sandwich and drinking from a tall mug.
"MMMmmm, turkey's good, but it's so dry, don't you think?" Maidel
asked, before drinking deeply, letting some water spill onto the floor.
"I'd pay a fortune for my forehead to be dry." Mina muttered.
"I could put you in the electric chair. We haven't used it in a
while." Maidel commented.
"...." was Mina's response.
Lord Pureheart was the oldest of all of King Reginald's friends
and generals, but he was also the smartest of them. Thus, he did not
immediately rush off at his old friend's request.
While the situation for the princesses was dire, Ranma's forces
were well trained and likely expecting an immediate attack. As much as
Lord Pureheart hated to do it, he had to give himself time to make an
educated attack. Titus had said that Ranma's warriors were so well
trained that not even double his force size was enough to bring the
keeper down.
But, that meant organizing his men just as well as Ranma had
organized his own. That would take too much time, and the princesses
had precious little.
If numbers would not work, skill would have to.
Despite himself, he had found the only solution was to batter
down Ranma's door in hopes that he could sustain an assault long enough
to rescue the princesses.
Geld and Ventrius were united in a cause, but they didn't quite
trust each other. Their minions were instructed not to attack each
other, but there was also competition.
The swordsman felt he had a more serious beef with King Reginald,
which had caused conflict with Ventrius, who saw himself as the one
with the better reason to hate the king. Though they saw themselves as
superior in terms of insult, they could accept that the other had been
greatly insulted as well.
Thus, they had agreed on a solution: Whoever caught the
princesses first, got to do whatever they wanted.
They both knew that Ranma's forces were strong, but the
likelyhood of him successfully repelling two enemy keepers at the same
time in a territory he'd just conquered was minimal, especially when
they'd heard of his penchant for helping the towns in the area. Once
all of the enemy had fallen, he would send his troops out.
Like clockwork.
So, they began tunnelling towards his domain, ignoring the
possibility that Ranma might have plenty of reserve troops still in his
domain.
Ranma had locked the secret door that separated the torture room
that Maidel was using, preventing even his own creatures from peeking.
He'd even turned off his magical map in his Dungeon Heart to make
ABSOLUTELY sure that no one peeked. The only other things in the
torture chamber were three magical lairs for the princesses to rest in
when they finally changed to his cause.
He wasn't certain that leaving Maidel alone with a mage and
priestess was a good idea, but Maidel insisted that she could handle it
by herself. Besides, they could not move from those wheels unless the
Dungeon Heart was destroyed, they died or were converted.
Ranma was currently pacing his temporary Dungeon Heart, wondering
what he should do. He'd dispatched half of his creatures to aid the
nearby towns, like he usually did. He decided that checking out the
library in Volstag's keep might be entertaining.
Ordinarily, Ranma wouldn't be able to read a word of it, but one
of the advantages to the Dungeon Heart was complete mastery of any
language he heard or saw. The magic translated everything for him.
He entered the library to see some of his faithful warlocks hard
at work, memorizing new spells that would be useful or finding out more
about various subjects.
"Olan, any word on that subject you brought up last week?" Ranma
inquired.
"The stone golem? Yes, it's possible. More than that, there's
record of two golems modelled on a single legendary Knight in the
castle that King Reginald claims. Unfortunately, the construction time
is usually two to three months. It can be dropped to a week, but it
becomes vastly weaker. For it to be of any worth, it must have a lot
of enchantments placed on it. And the more enchantments that are
placed on it, the longer it'll take." Olan answered.
"And we'll likely be done before then." Ranma commented.
"They could still have their uses, though." Olan suggested.
Ranma smirked, "You can't fool me. You just want to make one."
"Well, yes..." Olan admitted.
"Fine. Just tell the imps what you need." Ranma said, creating
two more.
Ranma perused the library when he found an old tome. Curious, he
pulled it from the shelf.
"Ah yes, the War of Devan." Locar, one of Ranma's newest
warlocks, spoke up as he looked at the title of the tome in Ranma's
hands.
"Who's Devan?" Ranma inquired.
"A powerful keeper who lived five hundred years ago. He
conquered most of a nearby continent, killing one of it's most
prominent heroes, the Avatar. But eventually, surprise attacks and low
funds lead to his defeat. After that, no one really knows what became
of him, but I think it might be in that book." Locar responded.
"You don't know?" Ranma asked.
"No, unfortunately not. I know the tome, though. It's very
famous in this area. Volstag liked to share what he had read with
people he entertained, but he never let anyone touch his books." Locar
answered.
Ranma decided that the tome might be interesting after all.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Next time, Ranma has the three princesses of King Reginald and
Reginald wants them back. But two rival keepers also want the
princesses. It's a four-way battle of large proportions as Ranma takes
on Geld, Ventrius and Lord Pureheart!
Next Time: Hints on better building and the necessary parts!
OMAKE!
------
What if Ranma taught the Umisenken to his creatures?
Lord Tiberius sat in his keep, enjoying a solid meal before he
went off to kill Keeper Ranma. Around him were his faithful knights
and guards.
Suddenly, the Horned Reaper appeared next to him and exhaled
garlic breath on his face, before vanishing back into the shadows.
"Ooooh, I think I just shit my robes."
"You're wearing armor."
"That's even worse... I better go get a new suit of armor..."
The group was hopelessly lost. They were told to circle around
Ranma's keep and attack from the east. Ranma had already built winding
passageways to the area they'd tried to circle around. They'd figured
they'd just go ahead and attack from the east.
They had no idea where they were now. The disorienting corridors
had given their dwarven allies a headache and they were trying to
choose a direction at the twelfth four-way intersection.
*PPRRRRRRTTTT*
"Oh, god, wizard! Can't you hold it in?" a guard asked, waving a
hand in front of his helmet.
*PRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTT*
"MAN! Knight! Step back! Step back!" the guard demanded,
waving his hand more frantically.
*PPPPPRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTTT*
"MY GOD, THIEF! What the hell were you three eating before this
mission? Banana burritos with super hot sauce and eggs? Ugh!" the
guard coughed, his eyes watering.
Deciding that the heroes were truly stupid, the bile demon backed
away slowly. He had to report to Ranma of this intrusion. But,
first....
*PRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPPPPPPTTTRRRRRRRRTRRRTRRRTbwweeeeeee*
The other heroes all shouted in disgust.
"GUARD!" a fairy coughed out angrily.
What if Ranma used Possession when going to fight a Lord of the
Land in order to challenge himself?
Lord Darius frowned. He'd been waiting over ten minutes for
Ranma to show, and the only thing that had appeared was one of his dim-
witted imps, who was reinforcing the walls on the cavern.
Suddenly, to Darius' surprise, the imp spun around and flung
himself at Darius, spin-jump kicking the lord eighteen times in the
face, before landing, kicking Darius in the shin, punching him in the
balls, headbutting him and finally using his Amiguriken speed to hyper-
kick Darius in the nuts again.
Darius collapsed.
Weeks later...
Lord Ludwig frowned. He'd been waiting over ten minutes for
Ranma to show, and the only thing that had appeared was a chicken...
"SO, who's keestered their supply of Dark Mistresses and Bile
Demons?" Bruxiel asked, before seeing the gazes on his fellow keepers,
"Not that...I....have..."
(
geocities.com/tokyo/island) (
geocities.com/tokyo)