Jenny dragged herself out of bed for the morning shift, the warm dawn light pouring through her window. Things had run late with the delve and despite the healer's ministrations her stiff body was vigorously objecting to the exertions she had subjected it to the day before. Hiding her messy hair under a helmet and jogging to the barracks she barely made it on time and instantly knew it was going to be a bad day. The guard had felt stretched ever since the dungeon appeared, they were busy even before that if she was truthful though she’d hoped once the recruits got some experience that would ease. Today though the whole building felt chaotic. The lobby was filled with armed beastkin waiting impatiently, guards were rushing around as assignments shifted to meet the needs of the day and the Captain was toting his war flail and looked like someone had just shit in his soup. He also spotted her entrance and beckoned her over.
“Jenny, Lord Krieger in his vaunted wisdom has apparently decided to grant Clan Osechi access to the dungeon without consulting the members of his council versed in security.” The controlled fury seeping between his clenched teeth and bulging veins as his grip on the polearm tightened further had her wondering if another coup was about to befall Timberhollow. “He has also given the Master Sergeant a task with the other members of your delve this morning. Meanwhile the rangers have requested my aid with a creature that may be resisting the wards, so we are rather short staffed. I’ve sent a runner to confirm the exact details of this deal, but for the moment I need them out of this lobby. Escort them to the dungeon. You have my authority to implement whatever security measures you deem necessary to prevent a break. A team is assembling for the escort, use them as needed.” He glanced towards a ranger standing awkwardly nearby that she’d missed in the throng, “I need to go, the fox is the elder, try not to start a war but don’t let them push you around.”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than he began striding out with the ranger hot on his heels as she was still processing her orders. She took a deep breath through her nose in a futile attempt to calm herself, and got down to business. It wasn’t long before the escort detail was trudging through the forest leading five combat teams of beastkin towards the dungeon. Jenny silently praying to The Three that the runner would catch up soon and thanking them that the clan had the foresight to send an elder so she wasn’t having to deal with rivalry between the groups who all wanted to enter first. Apparently, another was likely to show up later but couldn’t be found this morning. That would likely turn into another problem for the guard to handle but at least the absent group was unlikely to be her headache.
Reaching the palisade around the dungeon she was pleased to see the guards were wary despite sending one of the escort ahead to warn them of the incoming group. Unfortunately the runner sent to confirm the details of the deal still hadn’t arrived and she was wracking her brain for how to stall for time when there was a sudden commotion at the dungeon entrance.
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A bloody beastkin began crawling out from the dungeon, passing out halfway through. There was a sudden uproar, shock quickly turning to suspicion and anger, and all hope she had that the elder might be able to calm things down shattered as she heard him breathlessly shout, “Son!”
“Healers render aid. You two get him out of the dungeon, gentle as you can. No one goes in until we find out what happened.” The fox elder was already rushing forwards and she finally noticed the resemblance though that was often a dicey proposition with beastkin. Raising her hands in an effort to keep the others back, “Don’t swarm him, his father’s with him and the healers will need room to work.”
“What happened to him?”
“How did he get into the dungeon?”
“What did you lot do te 'im?”
“I would like to know the answer to some of those questions myself, but first he needs healing.” She was leaning heavily on her [persuasion] to try to keep things peaceful but she wasn’t sure it was going to be enough, thankfully she could see her fellow guards shaking off their surprise and preparing to back her up if needed. “Rest assured there will be an investigation into this.”
One hothead in the crowd began to step forward before a burly beastkin with thick grey skin and a large horn stopped him with a hand on his chest, “None of us will interfere provided the elder is satisfied with the treatment of our clansman, but the clan must be informed of this at once.”
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Jenny tried to content herself that things could have gone so much worse if tempers had been a little shorter or her colleagues less disciplined but that was a thin silver lining in a sea of ominous clouds. The fox beastkin had barely survived the dungeon and despite the hair of the elder having dashes of grey, his son was barely more than a kid. How he’d gotten in remained a mystery. The morning shift arrived shortly before she got there but hadn’t seen any sign of him until his grand reemergence, though they admitted they hadn’t checked the veil to see if the dungeon had any delvers when they arrived assuming the night shift would have mentioned something. The night shift were about to have some hard questions asked of them, particularly as one of the guards swore he heard the kid gasp "squad gone" before he passed out.
Of course, she’d had to pass that onto the elder which caused another uproar with the beastkin. Turned out the kid was part of the missing squad, so much for it being someone else’s headache. Which begged plenty of questions like did a whole squad get in? How? What happened to the rest of them? How deep did they go? Unfortunately, while the kid might be able to answer some of those questions the healer reckoned it would be a few days before he regained consciousness. Meanwhile the beastkin who had been so eager to enter the dungeon were now much more wary. How much of that distrust was directed towards the dungeon or the guard she wasn’t sure. Unfortunately on this occasion she couldn't say that distrust of the guard was unwarranted. The kid should never have gotten past the palisade much less into the dungeon without at least someone in the guard noticing. Something was badly wrong with their security and as word reached her that people were beginning to trickle into Timberhollow through the teleporter to access the dungeon, it needed to be better than ever.