Chapter 11: The Secret Dungeon
While the king led several more planning meetings over the course of two days, Daphne’s party resumed its journey toward EarthGlen. Vulp observed the kingdom meetings but didn’t participate.
Following the meetings, Lord Davidson departed abruptly, wanting to return to the Twin Cities as soon as possible. He suggested Vulp’s party remain in the capital a while longer and return at their own leisure. The girls all accepted this proposal. In contrast, the Church sent Vera back with Lord Davidson’s caravan, wanting her to resume relations with DM.
Meanwhile, Grummanonth had a visitor. He used his dungeon master authority to keep monsters away from the group as they worked their way down to his level. Normally, he wouldn’t be so accommodating. In this case, he recognized one of the members, infuriating as she could be. She was accompanied by a small party of adventurers, by the looks of it. Grummanonth couldn’t spy on them using infect the way DM often did, but he could at least use the console to get some basic information about them.
Eventually, the group descended the stairs to the bottom level. Grace poked her head into the room. “Uh, Grummanonth the Moonwalker?”
“Enter, Grace the Fearless and guests.”
“Okay!” Grace jogged into the room whereas the rest of her party reluctantly—very reluctantly—followed her in.
“I don’t believe it…”
“It’s actually a dragon…”
“So big…”
“Everyone, step forward!” Grace encouraged her comrades to approach.
“Rejoice, humans, for I have invited you into my lair. Speak your business.”
Grace spoke for her group. “I did what you asked and conveyed the message that you want to operate this dungeon similar to the Lower Gordu Dungeon. The Guild agreed but requests time to make the necessary preparations.”
“I stand informed, Grace the Fearless. How long until they are ready to proceed?”
“They don’t know… The Guild is busy trying to track down the adventurers who were sent south during the invasion of the Holy State.”
“H–How do you speak to a dragon so calmly?” one of the adventurers interrupted, but he was ignored.
“Ah. Wait just a moment, humans.” Grummanonth closed his eyes as though deep in thought. About thirty seconds later, he opened them. “Arrangements have already been made, it seems. I expect it won’t be long until the captive adventurers begin their return to the Union.”
“Are you sure!?” Grace shouted in response as the rest of her party winced.
“I am Grummanonth the Moonwalker.”
“Ah, okay…” Grace settled down.
“Why moonwalker?” the party’s thief asked suddenly. The rest turned to stare at her for entering the conversation.
“BWAHAHAHA” Grummanonth bellowed. “Why indeed!”
Everyone fell down from the intensity of Grummanonth’s laugh.
“Have you any other business, humans?”
Other than Grace, the adventurers all shook their heads, eager to leave. They each turned to Grace, hope in their eyes, anticipating she would also thank the dragon and dismiss herself. When she didn’t, their jaws dropped.
“Actually, I have a series of questions that come in several dozen parts.”
“Hm, fearless as always,” said Grummanonth. “If you want to know how your companions taste, then that’s only one question, no? Or perhaps you could figure out the answer for yourself?”
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Not waiting for Grace to react, the rest of the adventurers sprinted from the chamber.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Grace stated plainly. “I can’t feed you innocent people. If anything, they’d need to be guilty of crimes first.”
“Is that so?” The dragon didn’t actually seem all that interested. “Anyway, let’s work out a few of the details right now for how exploring the dungeon will work, once the Guild is ready to utilize it, of course.”
For the next several minutes, Grummanonth laid out plans about how his arrangement with the Guild would work. The deal more or less mirrored what DM had arranged with the Twin Cities Guild. Grummanonth would create a relatively safe training environment for the newbie adventurers, and the Guild would provide old equipment as payment to slowly level up the dungeon.
Grummanonth emphasized that the Union was not allowed to monopolize the dungeon. They could insist that adventurers from other countries must check in with the Union’s Guild before traveling to the dungeon since the Union was managing the partnership, but they couldn’t outright turn people away without a good reason. While Grace suspected the Guild would prefer to have more control than that, she didn’t personally care so she happily accepted the terms on behalf of the Guild and committed to report back.
Before she left, Grace requested another monster escort to aid her in leaving the Upper Gordu Forest.
“Don’t you have that party of adventurers to keep you safe?”
“Yeah, but, they didn’t seem all that trustworthy, right? Did you notice how quickly they abandoned me?”
“That’s because I’m Grummanonth the Moonwalker. If your party encounters another dragon while departing the forest, they’ll likely abandon you again. However, even monster escorts would not adequately protect you in such a situation.”
“Another dragon!? You know of more!?”
“Yes, I am not the only dragon. No, you are unlikely to encounter any others today.”
“Where are the other dragons!? How do I meet them!?”
“Grace the Fearless, your recklessness will get you killed. Do not expect to survive any encounters with other dragons.”
“A small price to pay…” she whispered to herself.
“Do not throw away your life so soon after I named you Fearless. Here, take this and go away.”
A jackalope poked its head into the chamber.
“A jackalope!” Grace ran over to the door and lifted up the jackalope like a pet. “It’s so soft!” She turned back toward the dragon. “Thank you!” She bowed slightly while holding the small monster, then turned again and exited the chamber.
----------------------------------------
About halfway between Nabilgat and Zarukthuzun, Sasha’s party wandered around, looking for a dungeon.
“Where is it!?” she yelled in frustration.
“Patience, Sasha,” Ardreth replied.
“Are you even sure there’s a dungeon here?” asked Luna.
“What, are you saying my friend’s a liar?” spat out the younger brother from the Empire, a falcon perched on his shoulder as always.
“No need to be rude,” the older brother chided.
“Fine, I’ll prove it.” The hunter sent his falcon up into the air, and it fanned out to search.
“Although I find it hard to believe the Empire could keep a dungeon secret,” Ardreth explained, “we shouldn’t make light of a tip received from locals.”
“Not just any locals. My friend.”
“Of course.”
A few minutes later, the falcon returned, beckoning its master.
“Hey! Let’s go!”
The group of five followed the falcon as it circled overhead. When the falcon descended and landed back on the hunter’s shoulder, they figured they must be close.
“I’ll take a look,” the older brother volunteered. “Wait here.” He handed his spear to his younger brother so he could move quietly.
“Why are you helping?” Luna knew the brothers and her interests weren’t aligned, seeing how they were supporting opposite sides during the tension between the Emperor in the north and the lords in the central region of the Empire.
“I’m just going to prove that we don’t resort to underhanded tricks, no matter how many accusations you throw our way. I’ll be right back.”
Luna clearly wanted to retort but just kept her mouth shut.
After several minutes of waiting, the older brother returned.
“What did you find?” his younger brother asked while returning the spear.
“There’s a dungeon there, all right.”
“Wow, it’s true,” Sasha muttered.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to explore it, though.”
“Why not?” Luna asked.
“It’s well guarded and not by the Guild.”
Sasha addressed the spearman. “Why would the Empire guard a dungeon?”
The older brother just shrugged.
“What do you think?” This time Sasha addressed Ardreth with the question.
“It’s quite likely that this is connected to the wyvern sightings. Perhaps the lords in this area have mustered forces to prevent others from tampering with the dungeon, hoping to prevent more wyvern attacks. It could certainly be something else, though.”
“Like what?”
“Perhaps the people guarding the dungeon are responsible for the wyverns.”
“No!” the younger brother objected.
“Kack!” the falcon echoed in support of its owner.
“It kacked!” Sasha observed.
“Let’s find out.”
Everyone turned to Luna, waiting for her to expand on her proposal.
“Let’s ask the guards. I doubt we can take what they say at face value, but depending on what story we concoct we can judge their reaction, right?” She turned to Ardreth, seemingly only interested in his perspective.
“That could work…” Ardreth acknowledged while deep in thought.
They prepared themselves for a small performance.