"The collapse of the exhausted Dungeon on the outskirts of Soar has brought with it many opportunities," Director Nuroon said, moving towards the centre of the vast space with uncanny speed. "Although this is not the first time that have unearthed all manner of unclaimed Loot Table rewards, it is the first time I have had the funds to outbid competing continental museums for first refusal on what was found."

He paused, looking expectantly back at those following him. What he had just said contained quite a lot for Karolen to unpick.

She, like everyone else with a functioning pair of ears, had heard about the destruction of the old Dungeon just beyond the city's walls. The story at the time was that the Mayor was considering expanding Soar in that direction and that empty real estate was required. But the word 'collapse' had not been part of that narrative. Similarly, while there were rumours that exhausted Dungeons retained the rewards they generated for devellers, to have it so casually confirmed was a bit of a shock.

But any further consideration of the broader implications had to be put on hold, as it was the final part of the Director's monologue which had truly caught the attention.

Nuroon obviously saw her 'interest' antennae flare. "Yes, indeed. I thought that might perk you up a bit, my dear. I have been fortunate enough to attract some unanticipated sponsorship from . . . sources. The largesse of these interested parties has enabled me to secure all of what you see in this room."

With that, Kregg raised his hands and executed some sort of showy, dramatic lighting Skill that suddenly illuminated the sheer scale of the room they were in.

Despite herself, Karolen felt her breath stolen from her by the sight.

As a child, she often found herself lost in tales from the rich tapestry of Soar's folklore. But it was the ones about the original dragons that had always captured her imagination the most. A young Karolen would lie on her bed, staring at her bedroom ceiling, and envision vast, glittering hoards of treasure guarded by fierce, majestic beasts. She’d picture the mounds of gold, the chests overflowing with jewels, and the artefacts of ancient civilisations piled haphazardly yet splendidly in the recesses of dark, cavernous lairs.

Now, standing in the centre of this vault—and Nuroon must have several employees with a talent for spatial manipulation to have created something so very much bigger on the inside than the out—Karolen couldn't help but be struck by its uncanny similarity to those long-cherished myths. The massive interior of the room stretched before her, filled with shelves and cases laden with all manner of goodies. Hosts of were milling about, opening, closing and shifting innumerable crates, all with titles emblazoned on them, such as "Enchanted Cloth," "Unsocketed Jewels," "Growth Armour", and the like.

If her initial impression had been of a dragon's hoard, now that her eyes had adjusted to the sheer scale of the space, what she was seeing reminded her of nothing so much as a roiling termite mound.

"You received sufficient sponsorship funds to purchase all of this?" Karolen asked, her voice slightly strangled.

Nuroon waved his hands negligently. "Yes. Yes. Yes. All above board, I assure you. And I will be more than happy for you to pick through the receipts. But, just for a moment, my dear, allow your mind to rise out of the gutter of numbers and formulae. Just bask in the glory before you. Let your soul soar . . ."

Karolen was certain Kregg generated a little background music to come into being as the Director spoke, which allowed her to ground herself in reality rather than be carried away with the majesty of the moment.

"Yes, this is all very impressive," she said, looking around in an attempt to calculate the emperor's ransom in gold the contents of this vault represented.

Clearly sensing a potential for awe passing, the cleared her throat. "If I may, , I would note that it is not just the volume of material the museum has been able to secure, but also its quality. Why, just yesterday we uncovered . . ."

"Yes. Yes. Yes," Nuroon was suddenly standing directly before Karolen, speaking over Culloden with an imperious tone. "We don't need to waste this young lady's time with any of that, do we? Follow me, please."

And the Director was off, moving towards the far left-hand side of the space where a small group of were crouched over a giant stone sarcophagus. The two men and one woman literally froze at the sudden appearance of the , deer caught in the gaze of an especially voracious predator.

"What have we here?" Nuroon barked, glaring at the man who was awkwardly trying to prise the lid free.

The Level 14 was wearing heavy overalls that must have been stained with sweat before he began the difficult work of lifting the top off the heavy stone chest. He was, Karolen realised, older than she would have expected for someone of such a comparatively low Level. A middle-aged change of Class, she wondered? Unusual, but not massively so. He was compact and dark, with just the first sign of grey appearing at his temples.

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"We think it might be the pair to the one we uncovered yesterday, Director," the sole woman in the group, a Level 21, supplied. She stepped forward to lay a hand on Nuroon's forearm - a gesture Karolen found surprisingly disturbing in its intimacy.

Nuroon paled, cocked his head this way and that, as if decided whether the short, blonde woman was worth devouring, and then abruptly turned to Culloden. "Well?"

The stepped forward, causing the female to retreat sharply to avoid being trampled. "Really, Delphina, I was quite specific that no further explorations should occur without me being present! Preece, but that bloody thing back down!" she barked at the older man who, blushing, let the lid of the sarcophagus drop down with a crash. "Is there not any of you with any sense? Harker, I'm surprised to see you involved in this."

The final member of the triplet, a pale, thin man in green-lensed spectacles, stepped forward. "We knew you were likely to be busy today, ," his eyes slipped for a moment to Karolen and then right back to Culloden, "and we did not want to lose momentum. The scrolls were clear that time was of the essence when . . ."

"Silence!"

Nuroon's hiss echoed around the vault, causing even those too far away to have seen him enter to stop what they were doing and turn around.

And then he really lost his temper.

Over the next few minutes, such was the invective that the Director unleashed on the three that Karolen wondered if she should intervene. He lambasted their abilities, timekeeping, personal hygiene, and even the lineage of their families. The younger man - Harker, was it? - was almost instantly reduced to tears, with both the woman and the older male left white-faced and stammering apologies. If the had any lingering doubts about the veracity of some of the HR reports she had come across, then they were very much put to bed during this little performance.

However, it was not just the vileness of the Director's attack that most shocked her. It was the reaction of Kregg, and more notably, that of Culloden that had her shaking her head in shame. Unsurprisingly, she recognised that the loved every second of the ritual humiliation delivered before him. Karolen was not the most active social butterfly in Soar, but the dating grapevine was loud and unanimous about Kelvin Kregg. He had long been widely tagged 'GNWW' - 'go nowhere without witnesses' - and at least three of her friends had stories to tell about his predilections. So, his enjoyment of the degrading performance that was taking place was pretty much on brand.

Martha Culloden, though? Karolen expected better. In fact, if the was not going to do something to intervene in this public shaming, then she was certainly going to . . .

However, as if sensing Karolen's tolerance was at an end, Nuroon suddenly halted his theatrical aural assault and plastered on a sickly smile. "But, let us say nothing more of it, eh? Mistakes happen, and we were all young and enthusiastic once, weren't we?" His predator's eyes flicked to Preece, "Although, for some of us, it is longer away than others, am I right?"

There was an awkward silence, and then Culloden finally spoke up. "Well, you've broken the seal, so we might as well get on with it." Her hands flared with light—Karolen assumed she had activated a Skill—and then she gestured at the sarcophagus lid. It shivered as if the stone had suddenly become very cold and then rose in the air to hover about ten feet above its base.

"Secure that!" Nuroon snapped, and a couple of other appeared with ropes and rigging to wrap around the floating lid.

"You have it?" Culloden asked one of them, allowing the glow around it to fade once she received hurried confirmation. "Now, let us see what we have here. Delphina, would you like to do the honours?"

The small woman pretty much leapt into the sarcophagus - Karolen could not imagine anything she would have been less likely interested in doing - and, such was its size, vanished from view.

An odd atmosphere settled around the group, punctuated only by Delpina's heavy breathing and occasional squeals of pleasure. Whatever she was finding within the massive coffin was obviously making her day.

And then something happened.

Karolen heard the Director give a little gasp, and then he was striding forward, reaching into the massive stone casket as if planning to pull Delphina out.

The smell hit Karolen first—a pungent, sickly-sweet odour of decay and . . . something else. Something unnatural. Her stomach churned as she watched Nuroon peer into the sarcophagus and then reach down with trembling hands. His fingers closed around strands of hair, and a horrific realisation struck them all as he pulled upwards. The woman's hair came away too easily, sliding through the grip like wet seaweed. Despite this, or maybe because of it, Nuroon pulled harder, his breath hitching as a sloshing sound filled the chamber, and Delphina's body began to emerge.

Her form was utterly liquified, flesh reduced to a gelatinous mass. Her skin had turned a mottled, bluish-grey, stretched thin over the skeletal remains that floated within a slurry of her melted tissues. Her eyes, wide and glassy, stared vacantly, suspended in the soup of her face.

But, what was worse, she wasn't dead.

Her lips, a thin, ruptured line, spread into a wide smile, leaking viscous fluid as they ripped and tore.

Then Nuroon's hand slipped, sinking into the gelatinous substance that had once been the head. He gagged as his fingers penetrated the gooey mixture, encountering the sharp resistance of bone fragments, the fibrous remnants of her brain oozing between his fingers.

Karolen didn't know what possessed him, but for some reason, he pulled again, harder this time, and Delphina's upper torso emerged with a squelch. Her ribcage was exposed, bones slick with the same dense material, flexing unnaturally as they were drawn up and free.

Nuroon staggered back, falling to his knees, dry heaving, leaving Delphina's remains sprawled across the edge of the sarcophagus.

And then there was a terrible tearing sound as the floating lid of the stone casket tore free from the ropes that had secured it in the air and fell, crushing what was left of Delphina under its immense weight.

A shocked silence descended, broken by Kregg clearing his throat. "My word," he said, his magically enhanced voice reaching every corner of the room. "There has been the most terrible of accidents. Can someone please call the healers? Oh, what an appalling tragedy! What a horrendous accident!"