I don’t know how many quests I did before I was able to get the quest guy’s attention, but it was a lot. A lot of fetch quests, hunting quests, escort quests… I did so many that I had an simple map of Clochglas in my head, and knew all the main streets.

I even did some of the quests that gave you special items, such as one that offered a Cloak of Invisibility and another that gave a pair of Stamina boosting earrings. I didn’t actually need them, but I kept them stashed away in my Inventory anyway. Maybe if I got enough of these things, I could eventually rebuild my collection of armour and weapons that I used to like admiring.

But at last, the quest I was looking for showed up. With a ding, a green window had popped open in front of me as I was finishing up the last quest — a fetch quest for the good old rat at the tollbooth.

Hidden Quest: Interest

Find “B”.

You received a letter from a mysterious sender:

“Dear Bad_Luck, Champion of the Briar Princess,

Your heroism has caught the eye of many in the Dwarven cities. I know what you seek, and if you would find me, I would start you on the right path. Come to the Annex Pub in Bailegorm to know more.

Sincerely,

B”

Aha. That was what I was looking for. A sudden message from a mysterious “B”, instructing me to run all over the Mounds on a wild goose chase to find them.

Before getting the quest, B would be nowhere to be seen in any of the Dwarf cities, even if you looked in all the right places. Once you got this quest however, they would spawn, and lead you to the Ruler’s Grave when you found them. What happened after that? Nobody knew. B would just vanish again until another newbie decided they needed to find the Ruler’s Grave.

As for Bailegorm, it was another Dwarf city in a separate Mound. Much like Clochglas, it had its own colour scheme and steampunk aesthetic. Where Clochglas was green, Bailegorm was blue. It had lots of pubs and bars, with the Annex Pub being only one among many.

But I didn’t intend to go to Bailegorm.

I turned away from the tollbooth, instead walking inwards towards the city. The quest I was given directed me towards the Annex Pub, sure, but I knew that I would not find B there.

Instead, I would receive another letter directing me to another place, and another and another, until I finally reached the end of the breadcrumb trail. By the time I found B, I would likely have visited every Dwarf city in the Mounds, having memorised enough pathways that I could become a Mound tour guide.

I turned the corner and ventured into an alleyway. Overhead, the metal plates making up the walls of the buildings glowed with an eerie light, illuminating the alleyway in dim green.

It didn’t take long for me to find what I was looking for. At the end of the alley was a manhole. I wrenched it open, before descending into the depths of the sewers.

I landed with a splash in knee-deep sewer water, the air smelling like a surprising amount of nothing despite how stinky I’d envisioned it being. All around me was darkness, the only light coming from the hole I’d entered through.

“Candle Flame.”

A blaze of blue-green demon fire burst to life in my hands, illuminating the slime covered walls of the sewers in gruesome detail. I was in a cylindrical tunnel made out of roughly hewn stone, various other similar looking tunnels connecting to this one along the walls. I pushed my summon outwards, setting it to drift in a slow orbit around me as I made my way down the sewer tunnel.

Fortunately, the quest objective was to “find B”, not to “follow B’s instructions”. And I knew where B would be.

I navigated my way through the sewers, taking care not to aggro any monsters that stood in my way. In the Dead of Night was doing a good job with keeping them off my back, since as long as I avoided their cone shaped line of sight, I could swiftly travel through the sewers uninterrupted.

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The trek was a long one, the winding tunnels taking me all the way underneath the heart of Clochglas. If you did the quest the normal way, you’d eventually get a map showing you the way through the labyrinth of tunnels. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need a map.

Then, I saw it. The glow of green light coming from a barred off tunnel entrance.

I pushed past the bars, the space between them just big enough for me to slip through, and moved into the tunnel. It was a lot drier here, the water blocked off by the elevated ground, and the walls cleaned of slime.

As I moved further in, the walls became bookshelves, and the rough stone floor became carefully laid out mosaics. Very intricate mosaics, at that, depicting imagery of the Decay battling Princess Rosa in a fight of Ruin and chaos, followed by his banishment to the Ironsalt Wastelands.

It was a majestic collection. The mosaic floor provided a sort of solemn atmosphere to it unlike any else. All the books here were on human cultural customs and habits. Since the Unseelie Court had a big problem with humans, this knowledge was forbidden, but some of the Little Folk still saw fit to preserve the knowledge in this library.

In the centre of the sewer library, I found a troll reading at a desk made out of driftwood, a pair of flimsy glasses perched on her nose. Her skin was grey and mottled, the colour of granite, while her hair grew thick and straw-like. Her eyes were like spider eyes, small and beady as she looked up from her book and considered me, not a speck of surprise in her expression.

“Bad_Luck, I’ve been expecting you,” she closed the tome in her hands with a snap, and stood up. Her voice was low and gravelly, with the texture of boulders grinding against one another. “As a Chosen One, I expected you to be able to find your way here even without my hints. You did not disappoint.”

“I am Brigid. Founder of this ancient archive below the city. I welcome you to the Forbidden Library of Clochglas.”

“Thanks for the welcome,” I looked around. “Lovely place you’ve got here.”

“Thank you, I built it myself.”

“An impressive feat,” I said politely. “By the way, do you know the way to the Ruler’s Grave?”

“Straight to the point, you Chosen Ones,” Brigid chuckled and shook her head. “I understand…I understand… Follow me.”

She stood up from her chair with a creak, and began leading the way past me and back into the sewers. I followed behind her, splashing loudly through the sewer water. From there, she made a quick succession of twists and turns.

From the direction we were heading, I could tell that we were leaving Clochglas and heading into the Mound next to it, making our way through the Mounds via the underground sewer system.

For a troll, Brigid was surprisingly chatty. She talked non stop throughout the whole journey, asking me questions and explaining things about Clochglas and the Dwarves.

“Ignorant lot, those Dwarves,” she announced as she stumped along another tunnel. “They follow the founding words like gospel, never questioning from whence the old traditions came. Though that could be said about most of Briarwood, I’m sure, even though I’ve never set foot beyond the sewers.”

“Never?” I asked, following along. Brigid had her own light with her, so I’d dismissed my Candle Flame summon to preserve MP. “Then how did you build this library?”

“I didn’t build it. The Creator did.” she responded woefully. “I may be the owner and the founder, but I am that in name only.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I remember when he first made us, shaped us out of sand,” she continued. “Silver sand on a silver beach. There was no Briarwood then, just a silvery island upon the silvery sea. He made us and gifted us names and roles. I was told that I was the founder of the Forbidden Library, and so I was.”

“That’s… interesting,” I said. I didn’t remember this part from Briarwood lore. Maybe it was extra bits my brain had added into the dream?

“Interesting indeed. The Creator would have my head if he knew that I’d told you,” she sighed. “But he only watches the Highnesses nowadays. Only the centrepieces matter to him now, now that the Disconnect is so near.”

“What’s the Disconnect?”

“You’ll see when it’s time. Oh, and we’re here,” she sang, then pointed up. I craned my head to see a tunnel leading upwards into the darkness, flanked by a long, rickety ladder.

“Scale this ladder to the top, and you will find yourself near what you seek,” she turned to leave.

“Excuse me?” I called after her. She stopped, her swinging green lantern casting flickering shadows along the walls.

“What is it?”

“Could you help me unlock the entrance?” I gestured wildly. “You know, the brambles. The brambles that cover the dungeon entrance? I don’t know how to get rid of them?”

“Oh, you don’t need my help,” she chuckled. “Help is already there.”

“Huh? Excuse me. Excuse me!” I ran after her as she lumbered back down the tunnel, her light bobbing up and down. I watched as she turned the corner. By the time I skidded round that corner, she’d disappeared.

I stared at the space she had been, and stared back up at the ladder.

Nothing left I could do, I supposed. I set one foot on the rung and began the climb.