“So… you have me in a bit of a tight spot,” the Guildmaster starts, “a dungeon, over a thousand miles from the rest of civilization, and now no party to clean it.”

  I shrug, “It's a pretty low level dungeon…”

  “For now,” Aldamen shakes her head, “a full party is required by…”

  “I know some folks,” I cut her off, “I can get a few groups together that should test at about Silver or so. Keep the dungeon trimmed regurly, and everything will be fine.” I can get “CR 4 NPCs” - which works out to fifth level characters with “PC csses” - off of a list, so when I want a specific css, I need to drop down a bit sometimes. So I can get a Cleric, Fighter, Wizard, and Rogue… but only the Cleric will be properly fifth. The fighter will be fourth, the Wizard and Rogue will be 3rd plus a few levels in NPC csses. Still, with buffs and some more traditional summons as backup, they'll do fine.

  And Aldamen has a pretty good idea where I'm getting them, “Are these the same half-people you have running the town?”

  I smile, “Yes. I'll let you test and grade them, but we both want them in the system as real adventurers.”

  “Look, I don't like the idea of…”

  “Do you have a better option?” I interrupt, “and do the rules really prevent people with… ‘unusual origins’... from joining?”

  She looks at me long and hard, “No, I suppose not.” Shaking her head, she continues, “Fine. As they're not real, we can do this in the dungeon; I need to inspect it anyway, so I'll watch as they clear it out. This evening?”

  I nod, “Works for me. I can have them ready by then. Meet you at the gate?”

  “Sure…” she shakes her head, “see you then.”

  We part ways, and I build my minions… the “Seer(Medium)” build for a Cleric-5, the “City Watch(Guard Officer)” for a Fighter-4, a “Street(Dealer)” for the Rogue-3 (and Expert-1), and a “Schor (Hedge Wizard)” for the Wizard-3 (and commoner-2). I also get a mount for each (a Griffon from Summon Nature's Ally IV), and then proceed to buff them all heavily. I make the humans female and the Gryphons male… so I have some eye candy but Last Shadow won't get jealous. I also make a mount for Aldamen, so she can keep up on the trip (just speed-buffed horse for her; it doesn't need to fight, and I'm mildly nervous about leaving combat monsters under other people's command… even though I did it for the town guard). I also make sure to equip them all with bows, arrows, and the necessary combat skill for firing them into melee (via Heroics, of course).

  I take the time to walk them all through basic tactics, (which will usually be “three Gryphons in front, one in the rear, everyone else peppers with arrows or spells,” in a fight, and “Rogue on one of the Gryphons in front,” when exploring… but there's a few other scenarios too, and these ‘people’ are mostly capable of thinking for themselves… within the confines of their orders).

  I meet up with the Guildmaster at the city gate, which actually has a portcullis at this point, and my guards watching the gate. I mean, it's supposed to eventually have two portcullis there, with a kill box between (a stone area with a room above and to either side, with small holes in the walls and ceiling for guards to shoot or drop mean things through), but the whole pce is a work in progress.

  The woman I'm meeting is dressed up a bit more than normal; she's wearing a fine belly warmer (also called a Haramaki; it's a silk sash with metal ptes, and doesn't interfere with movement) that's quite well put together and radiates Abjuration magic. She also has a buckler made out of a silvery metal (which I recognize as Mithril) that works the same way. She also has a cloak, headband, belt, bracers, vest, boots gloves, goggles, a few wands on her belt… she's wearing a lot of magical items, and that's just what I can see easily.

  “Ready to go?” It's a little tricky to be sure with that enchanted scarf in the way, but I'm reasonably confident she's smiling.

  “We are, yes,” I nod, “You look loaded for dire bear yourself.”

  “You never know what will happen down there,” she shrugs, “and preparation pays off. Come on….”

  We go by ground (I didn't give her a flying horse, partly because dumb animals have issues using magical movement modes… although there is a spell for that) and with the Haste on everyone (except Aldamen, but it's on her mount, so she still goes as fast), we're there in under twenty minutes.

  The dungeon goes well; Aldamen and I sit back and watch while the summons do all the work.

  When I comment “This pce has grown considerably in the st week,” after the twentieth trap and fortieth minor monster, the half-orc chuckles.

  “That's probably my fault,” Aldamen shakes her head, “the drain on the dungeon from building the guildhouse is considerable.” She pauses, “I was honestly expecting it to be a lot worse with all of those magical constructs of yours running around. How often have you been cleaning this pce?”

  “Often enough,” I misdirect slightly, “it's not like the pce is very far.”

  She drops it, and we clear the dungeon out handily: My minions are individually at least as tough as the biggest bad in the dungeon… and they're buffed up and outnumber any given encounter.

  When we're done, Aldamen gives her verdict, “Good news and bad news… which do you want first?”

  I roll my eyes, and she continues, “It's a Bronze dungeon, and this group of yours is easily up for silver. I could argue for Gold, but either way, no problem there. I can pass these not-entirely-people and they can keep this dungeon clean.”

  “Just silver or gold?” I pause, “Pity. So what's the good news?” It's not a great joke.

  She chuckles anyway, “That WAS the good news,” she shakes her head, “The bad news is that the real popution here can't support guild rates. So if I'm going to pay these almost-people guild rates to clean the pce, I'm going to need to tax all of your other servants to cover it.”

  “So you'd be charging me just to pay me,” I consider, “that seems… pointless.”

  “I agree,” she chuckles, “So… how about you just keep cleaning the dungeon for the loot and I tax just the non-guild real people to cover the minor supplies I'm going to need?”

  I nod, “It's a deal.”

  We shake on it and head back.

  On the way, Death pipes up, “So… congratutions on leveling up again. Eighth now.”

  It's nice being able to avoid speaking out loud for this, “So things my summoned minions kill count, then? That's good to hear.”

  “They very much do, yes,” my uncle sounds amused, “So as to what you have… first, more spells. Native fourth level access, so the tricks you've been using get you to fifth.”

  “So Teleport, Pne Shift, Raise Dead, and so on?” After-the-fact immortality for others… well, as long as they're not killed by death effects and the body is mostly intact… still, nice. Also, I don't need to worry about getting trapped as much. Handy.

  “And more. Lots more… Wall of Stone, Fabricate, Wall of Force… there's no shortage.” Death takes a breath, “But your mother LOVES flexibility, which expins his other choices: Overmind Psionics, which will let you prepare psionic powers of up to fourth level at this point…”

  “Psionics?” I pause, “So Mom gets really esoteric, then….”

  “Very,” Uncle C pauses, “He wants you to have the best, which is why you really should check out…”

  “Ugh, not this again,” oh, I hope Aldamen didn't see me roll my eyes there.

  “Fine,” huh, I can hear his sigh in my head, “He also finangled literally any spell of a level you can cast by way of Dream Manifestation and Extra Resolve to power it. It's only twice a day (although you can recharge that via the Heroics spell) and it's a full round action to use… but it's also natively a supernatural ability, which gets rid of the possibility of dropping your guard, getting interrupted by an injury, being subject to spell resistance, and so on. More importantly, though, it's any spell from any list, so you can get discounted spells like Greater Teleport from the Summoner's list or Greater Angelic Aspect from the Padin's list, plus spells from nearby Fractals, like Moogle's Wisdom from ‘Final Fantasy’ for a slightly improved Owl's Wisdom or Instant Upgrade from ‘Starfinder’ to make minor technological items inside people.”

  “The spells in my library that nobody could even theoretically learn make more sense now,” I consider, “Mom's been pnning this for a long time, hasn't she?”

  “He first discussed it with me when you were six,” Death agrees, “and had clearly put a lot of thought into it already at that point.”

  “Always watching out for me.” I chuckle, and Aldamen looks over; I ignore her for now, “I suppose I should restore Richard to… his… natural form next.”

  “About that….” my uncle speaks up….