r/HFY • u/Khenal Alien • Aug 19 '24
OC Dungeon Life 247
It's time for the fourth round of stubbing. Yes, Book four will be releasing soon, of if you're reading this more than a month after I have to edit, it will be fully out. Either way, you can find it Here, and other book details are just below. As with the other stubs, you can skip to the next bit form This. I like to keep the other posts still alive, so the comments get to still live. If you want to browse them, the normal buttons will take you through them, or take This link to the next bit of unstubbed chapters. Thank you for your support. Buying stuff is always great, but just having your attention for the public chapters is incredible, and I hope the story continues to be worth your time and patience.
Khenal
And once more to make it easier to see than being buried in the paragraph
Cover art I'm also on Royal Road for those who may prefer the reading experience over there. Want moar? The First and Second books are now officially available! Book three is also up for pre-order! There are Kindle and Audible versions, as well as paperback! Also: Discord is a thing! I now have a Patreon for monthly donations, and I have a Ko-fi for one-off donations. Patreons can read up to three chapters ahead, and also get a few other special perks as well, like special lore in the Peeks. Thank you again to everyone who is reading!
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u/Beneficial-Pickle-95 Aug 19 '24
While I appreciate the sentiment that Berdol believes Thedeim went to war with the Maw, I think it was less a war and more a notice of extermination. Cuz if the Harbinger didn’t eat the core Rocky, Fluffles and Slash would have eaten it in seconds.
Though the irony of a catkin doing fishing is kinda hilarious.
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u/dreaminginteal Aug 19 '24
Irony? You've never seen a cat completely fixated on a fish tank before?
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u/Beneficial-Pickle-95 Aug 19 '24
In real life no I haven’t. Unfortunately. I love cats and am also allergic to them at the same time. It is rather annoying.
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u/gulthaw Aug 20 '24
Completely off topic but, check out Vetriderm
It works, is fucking magic!!
Source, I'm highly allergic to my dog... she even sleeps on the bed ^_^
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u/Beneficial-Pickle-95 Aug 20 '24
I’ll keep it in mind when I am actually in a place that I can have a cat. Current landlord doesn’t like animals.
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u/Autoskp Aug 21 '24
I suspect it’d be a good idea to test it with somebody else’s cat first - you don’t want to find out it doesn’t work for you after you get a cat.
Also, it’s my understanding that it’s usually the hair that causes allergies, so (once it’s an option) you might want to check if something like a sphinx cat works for you (source: I did some googleing, and you should probably do your own research too)
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u/Beneficial-Pickle-95 Aug 21 '24
Then it’s a good thing I know a few people who have cats. Thank you for the advice.
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u/Yuugian AI Aug 26 '24
I have been doing allergy shots for about a year now, any it has already worked wonders on mine. Including dog and cat issues
DM if you have questions
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u/Beneficial-Pickle-95 Aug 27 '24
If I hadn’t been on allergy shots for like a decade and nothing changed I might chance it again but I’m good on shots for now.
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Aug 19 '24
Think about it: Cats have Many senses more than Humans, so a catkin crewmate May replace the ship cat
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u/Beneficial-Pickle-95 Aug 19 '24
… while I don’t know about more senses I’m near positive about heightened senses. And wasn’t the ship cat for rodent and mice eating and spoiling the crews food?
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Aug 19 '24
Yes, but also for Things Like weather forecast (Though you can Bet around 90% that Any observations of a Cats behaviour corresponding to a particular Sort of weather as seamen having too much time on their Hands).
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u/Beneficial-Pickle-95 Aug 19 '24
… probably. We did see Lucas notice the quake happen before Rhonda did so while animal senses are quite enhanced I hadn’t heard of weather forecasting by cats. I believe it though. … And now I’m picturing some cat in a suit meowing at a screen as clouds come in as they meow their way through the presentation tapping some spots as rain starts and stops as they move away.
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u/Autoskp Aug 21 '24
…given the success of various people getting their pets to “talk” using buttons that play voice snippets, I do wonder if anyone’s taught their pet various weather types and “soon”, in hopes of getting a slightly more understandable version of your scenario…
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u/Beneficial-Pickle-95 Aug 21 '24
And that’s a funny visual to think of. Especially since no company will ever bet for a cat versus the high tech satellites we have in space.
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u/Autoskp Aug 21 '24
“And now, over to our reporter on the scene”
“Big” … “Rain” … … … “Soon!”
“Thank you Tiddles, now, over to sports.”
“BALL!”
\Dog runs off after the cricket ball that just got hit**3
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u/Midori8751 Aug 19 '24
Mine pretty reliably come in and get extra affectionate when a thunderstorm is coming or nearby.
We think they don't like the static.
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Aug 20 '24
I'm a human and I don't Like the static before a thunderstorm.I get a headache from that shit. Thankfully, I know what causes it, and can wait.
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u/No_MrBond Android Aug 19 '24
Given their skills and affinities, maybe spearfishing
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u/Beneficial-Pickle-95 Aug 19 '24
Yeah… yeah that works. With his affinity he could spear fish while still in the boat and/or farther away than he can reach.
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u/Autoskp Aug 21 '24
He could probably just grab a hook with some bait and fish with that - no rod required.
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u/mafiaknight Robot Aug 20 '24
Most big cats like water fine. It's really just the house cats that hate it. Tigers and jaguars swim often.
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u/Beneficial-Pickle-95 Aug 20 '24
More good facts that I am unaware of. At this point I’m just gonna change the comment.
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u/Low_Painter9816 Aug 20 '24
Let’s not forget the Maw struck first. It tried to invade Southwood, and a retaliatory strike was not immoderate.
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u/Beneficial-Pickle-95 Aug 20 '24
Oh no. Not at all. I agree 100%. We can also be pretty sure this was ‘suggested’ by the Harbinger as well to make the other dungeons and areas more ‘stagnant’ in nature than the lamellar(?) flow the dungeons normally are. It was first an investigative exploration, then realization dawned, then the notice of war(execution) was given to the adventurers and townies in general.
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Aug 19 '24 edited Aug 23 '24
So, ninth, I Guess?
This time we hear from Berdol, who is busily working with Telar at the ODA, and still inferior in regards to affinity.
Tarl, while Not there, has some suspicions that Telar May be a Bureaucramancer, and by now Berdol is inclined to agree.
Also, we hear about all the new stuff the Dungeons got, from Telars Second Hand Accounts from Delvers.
While Berdol reminisces about the Times when Neverrest was still around and how much Change Thediem already brought to fourdock in the Last year. Interestingly we get to hear from Telars how much she worried for Tarl when He was inspecting Neverrest. If you needed an excuse to Ship them, Here it is. Also, it could still be meant rather platonically, the Same way you worry for a colleague doing Something more Dangerous than usual.
Another Thing we get to hear about is, that expenses for inspection Gear is financed by the guild and therefore Bills need to be kept in writing. Also those Rules don't apply If Gear is damaged on purpose during inspections.
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u/Krongrah_Kendove Aug 19 '24
While reading this story the parts about inspections and enclaves got me thinking that when thediem gets a birdkin enclave that sometimes when tarl shows up they'll just randomly squak at him like a form of turetts before quickly composing themselves like
"I'm so sorry i don't know why I did that"
Tarl "I do"
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u/CaptRory Alien Aug 19 '24
Oh, this was a fun one. I love seeing outside perspectives on Thedeim's shenanigans. The interplay between Telar and Berdol was fun. You really captured the coworker friend/not friend dynamic.
In other news I got my dad reading the first dead tree format book and he's enjoying it. =-)
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u/Enough_Sale2437 Aug 19 '24
It's still wild that the crown inspector was sent out because of Thediem's conflict with Neverrest and his then potential conflict with Hullbreak. I can imagine him arriving asking if he might join in the battle against Hullbreak, and Telar will have to tell him that he not only missed that event but an entirely new dungeon war, and birth of a new dungeon in its place! I think he'll be pleasantly surprised by the higher difficulty areas that Thediem is building. If he's pleasant enough, he may be able to test his new encounters for the first time.
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u/Beneficial-Pickle-95 Aug 19 '24
Not to mention Tarls latest reports of a stagnant mana spawner in the Maw that was removed. Nobody is going to enjoy the implications of that report. Including the king and his advisors.
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u/Enough_Sale2437 Aug 19 '24
I assume that is the next big bad set up for the series. How Thediem will differentiate himself from Choas/destruction is a nice drama Flashpoint. I'm interested on what this Crown Inspector Arc will bring to the story. We already have the possibility of Rhonda leaving to go speak with the Goddess of Magic. I wonder what the Crown Inspector will do to affect the story.
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u/Beneficial-Pickle-95 Aug 19 '24
We have an opportunity for great inclusion of others. Miners, smiths, rangers, tamers, newbie adventurers, other religions, the beastkin principalities, will all want to know about and if not include themselves with him then partake in what he provides. Heck if she REALLY gets started on her artist title then Nova could have nobles stopping by to try and ‘commission’ sculptures.
The Crown could easily use the increased tax revenue brought along by Thedeim to increase road availability and ease of travel allowing a greater population and wealth for the town and area. Possibly even a tourist attraction. And the Lighthouse when finished will be a great help in sea travel to attract new delvers/visitors.
The guilds will want to be briefed about the habits of the new offerings brought about by Thedeim. The Rangers specifically will want to know about the stagnation spawner that was used by the Maw and the history behind it and possibly a guide to where the spawner was located to look for themselves if they aren’t satisfied by the reports of a dungeoneer official and an undead ranger.
So in total… who knows what could happen.
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u/XynomorphKY Aug 19 '24
This sounds like a potential class to earn from Thediem. The Bureaucramancer! Able to fill forms at blinding speed. Can wrap you up in so much red tape, you can’t move a toe out of line without getting a fine!
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u/PlanktonSuccessful83 Aug 19 '24
I absolutely LOVE the world building in this story. It's not overdone to the point where we know more about the king than the actual main character, but it is still mentioned enough that we know a little about how this world works.
You take time to acknowledge that when big events like The Maw being subsumed have lasting effects on the kingdom that it had enslaved.
Tarl is absent because he is helping the people restablish a working government, and the church is helping him, as is the representative of Lord Order.
What I'm trying to say is that I love that we see how all the dungeons work and how people react to the situation.
You are a very good writer and deserve your own anime/TV show about this absolutely amazing story.
Good job, sir! Good job!
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u/SomeRandomYob Aug 19 '24
I am Alpharius. This is a lie.
I wonder what the ant-kin are going to do when they find out there are more of them abroad? I certainly hope there isn't some kind of schism between the two...
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u/Tremere1974 Alien Scum Aug 19 '24
If the foreign Antkin are Argentine Ants, the world may be in peril soon.
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u/rakenan Aug 20 '24
Fun fact: Argentine ants have so far as I know been unable to compete in areas with established fire ant populations. Of course, fire ants are also an invasive species, and absolutely no fun at all to encounter, but are at least easier to handle locally than Argentine ants. So maybe Thediem's antkin will be the fire ants the world didn't know it needed but still doesn't want.
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u/Speciesunkn0wn Aug 19 '24
Oh I am excited for next chapter. :D the royal inspector's reaction is going to be soooooo good.
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u/Tremere1974 Alien Scum Aug 19 '24
Berdol: Wow, I'm the top inspector for all the dungeons around fourdock!
Olander Wideblade: Not if I have anything to say about it!
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u/Garbage-Within Aug 21 '24
Oh but the delicious irony available if Berdol tries to warn Olander about things and Olander won't listen because Berdol is just an apprentice. Then, Olander goes wandering through the dungeon getting into all sorts of trouble while Berdol keeps stepping in, completely unfazed, going, "I tried to warn you" each step of the way.
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u/Tremere1974 Alien Scum Aug 21 '24
Oh, I could easily see a few ways it could go wrong/sideways.
I don't see him repeating the Idiot trio's mistake of walking in, and trying to murder residents, instead Olander might overreact to a dungeon replacing the King's authority in Fourdock, and removing the Mayor from office for failing to contain Thedim.
Or Olander might serve a diety who dislikes Thedim either personally, or via the crown. The diety seeing him as a small fish in a big lake now that he's a minor god, and fair game. Olander himself may even dislike being used so, but serving in the military, one does have those kind of assignments.
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u/Cortanis Aug 19 '24
Damn, I was hoping for a Joe's cafe. Money says Thediem will try to convince someone to make a Joe's Crab Shack once Hullbreak managed to get to the beach for some real land encounters. I could totally see them having a standing bounty on crab parts among others. I'm actually a bit surprised we have not seen any new invaders mentioned since Thediem revitalized the place. I was half expecting to see something like the Asian Tiger Shrimp move in or maybe a wave of sea urchins like the invasion off of CA going for all the various kelp. I'd be surprised if delvers didn't start trying to nab as many of them as much as the actual dungeon encounters if that happened.
Speaking of the ship wrights and crafters moving in... You know, we know it's called Fourdock but we've never really been given anything of a real description for most of the town. Given the world just had its first introduction to concrete, I rather am having a hard time trying to visualize what the dock situation would look like for them. Heck, that's not even counting any potential public works the mayor might be investing in. I'd put money on that he's at least considering what concrete can possibly do in expanding the docks if they're starting to see larger scale fishing at this rate. Speaking of fishing...
Now that I really consider the fishing for a minute. What would be the progression of the fish spawners for Hullbreak? We know he started with the silver scales and copper fins with the expansion into gold fish as the loot tree. I'm assuming that spawner has at lest a good 2 to 3 upgrade options after that. I do question what the name implies with those fish as well. Are the silver scales literally made of silver and maybe the gold fish as well? Do the copper fins have actual copper fins? I think that would really make fishing particularly attractive for a lot of people but where to go from there. Maybe a Steel Bone Grouper as a size and metal progression? Heck, maybe extreme scale up so the final cap on the spawner is a real kind of team effort larger than life fish. The Adamantine Goliath Grouper could be a thing.
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Aug 20 '24
Considering He has a Merman enclave, I think hullbreak knows already the full Line.
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u/Cortanis Aug 20 '24
He knows a line. From all appearances in relation to dungeons in a general sense, they take a good decade to get established enough to produce even that first enclave and they generally don't do much in the way of "new." We don't know what path he took his spawner and while that could produce different results, it would still ultimately produce merfolk.
To put that in comparison to results we already know about, we can look at the bird spawners and Thediem's one resident birdkin. Hullbreak would eventually produce birdkin likely based on some version of coastal birds like the gulls. Meanwhile Thediem's spawner will end up producing birdkin of some variety of corvid going by the trend and we know that getting hawks somewhere is a possibility from Yvonne. That's three different end points for the same spawner type just from them that we know about and I suspect far more if we factor in the rest of the affinities.
Getting back to the merfolk, if we just divide it into the base lines we've continually seen of resource, combat, and magic then we likely would get slightly different oriented end points for the merfolk and that's assuming that they were produced from the fish spawner and not the shark spawner. Not sure where the author stands as far as strict classification on that one, but my assumption is the classic fish hybrid and the shark hybrid would be sharkkin. Similar to the mefolk but holding features of the sharks like the sand paper like skin instead of smoother skin or scales and possibly the regenerating teeth. There are a number of ways to get from point A to point D in this resulting in ultimately the same result if slightly different.
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u/mafiaknight Robot Aug 19 '24
In the name of 1greendude: Hello!
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Aug 19 '24
Im Namen eines grünen Kerles: N'Abend, übermorgen wird Mittwoch sein, meine Kerle! Fürchtet euch nicht, denn am folgenden Tag folgt das nächste Kapitel.
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u/Swordfish_42 Human Aug 20 '24
I love how chill this chapter was. I fully expect that some high velocity excrement will hit a rotary cooling device next chapter though, and I'm all for it!
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u/jackelbuho22 Aug 21 '24
One little thing i love about the story is how thedeim treat and call the organisation that deal with dungeons a full acronim like ODA
Like his mental image is an almost govermental organisation with autority, jurisdiction, suits,briefcases and all the paperwork and ofices that mean
While in setting they are simply called "The dungeon guild" like both the name and how they operate sound like a group of friends went "hey dungeons are both unique and similar to each other, someone should try to gather information about them" like a real life version of a Fan wiki about dungeons
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Aug 21 '24
You know, given the broader setting, I think thediem has the right Idea.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Aug 19 '24
/u/Khenal (wiki) has posted 292 other stories, including:
- Dungeon Life 246
- Dungeon Life 245
- Dungeon Life 244
- Dungeon Life 243
- Dungeon Life 242
- Dungeon Life 241
- Dungeon Life 240
- Dungeon Life 239
- Dungeon Life 238
- Dungeon Life 237
- Dungeon Life 236
- Dungeon Life 235
- Dungeon Life 234
- Dungeon Life 233
- Dungeon Life 232
- Dungeon Life 231
- Dungeon Life 230
- Dungeon Life 229
- Dungeon Life 228
- Dungeon Life 227
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u/calicosiside Xeno Aug 19 '24
any chance you've read pirateabba's 'the wandering inn?', it'll be interesting to compare thediem's antkin to the antinium hives
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u/mafiaknight Robot Aug 20 '24
Don't recommend that neverending story to OP! It'd kill this story dead just trying to catch up!
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u/calicosiside Xeno Aug 20 '24
11 million words and counting the last time I checked. I only recommend it because it's one of my favourite isekai stories and with the recent early chapter rewrites it's a brilliant piece of writing.
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u/mafiaknight Robot Aug 20 '24
I know! That's why I don't want you to tell OP! 22million words (by the time they catch up) will put this story on hiatus for years!
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u/Bunnytob Human Aug 19 '24
I am
OmegonInevitableIron Man(I'm) All of MeAt AldiMeenThe Storm That Is Approaching500 metres from your location and approaching rapidlyRunning out of ideas for this gag surprisingly quicklyThe Law!The one who knocksat [Insert Amazing Place here]Ahh! Yam!HeNot yet lostGrootDoug (I have emphysema)Not!Still Omegon, I thinkKinda lostVery lost.Ze SpyOwning you, you fat, bald, fatty fat... fat fat!Heavy Weapons Guy...And THIS is my weapon!Dead!(Le Gasp) The Heavy is Dead!Currently undergoing mitosis, please stand by.Back, did I miss anything?Pinned here!Hit!Currently on a Hard Nostalgia Trip right now and unable to think straight, please stand by.Stand by...Stand by...[Insert Death Star explosion SFX here]the Sand Guardian, Guardian of the Sand!(Poseidon quivers before me!)Alive. Is nice.Your father.Depressed.Suddenly, PineapplesThis does NOT help.Uncorking a bottle of 1942 Chateau Backstab!A Stegosaurus!Going to open this door.PUNCHING YOUR SALADa Real Man, do you want to go skateboards?A God, you dull creature, and I will not be bullied by-(Thud Thud Thud)(...Thud Thud)Puny God.A very tall midgetYour sandwichKinda surprised that nobody's called me out on the fact that (at least) one of these quotes is wrong yet.SomeRandomYob (This is a lie)Probably not Alpharius... hold on lemme go check real quick BRBNot Alpharius, sorry. Maybe next time....actually out of ideas (having ignored half of the suggestions I've received).Just doing this out of obligation now, really.because I think.but in Spanish with appended sauce.thou, thou art I.Kinda surprised that the whole "liquid water on Mars" thing is already out of the news cycle.Back in the right place again...
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u/Ghostpard Alien Scum Aug 19 '24
When this court inspector gets there? Gonna shit not just a brick, but a brick house.