Yesterday at dusk, at the town of Soria, Ramirez’s workshop, just before James opened the main entrance to his dungeon.

I was somewhat worried for Timoteo and Dimitri, scouting a dungeon can be treacherous, like Timoteo, I had attempted the dungeon of the Jungle Botanist, although, I had made my attempt more than three centuries before Timoteo did. The ability of those with sufficient magic to stave off death by transferring their souls into a dungeon crystal, found or made, depending on the ritual they used, is not to be underestimated. Before my sojourn into that dungeon, I had considered the possibility for myself, when I finally reached near the end of my days. My encounters with the dungeon fairy cured me of that thought. I found the fairy a major annoyance and lacking in attention span. The fact that any long term, somewhat sapient company, is enough to help stave off insanity is at least a minor vote in favor of making the change. However, I managed to induce the fairy to tell me somewhat of his masters experience, and learned that the core didn’t experience a sense of taste, despite experiencing at least some form of vision and hearing, based on the projected presence of the core.

For me, between not being able to taste food again, the extremely over active fairy, and the prospect of slowly going insane, negated all the other considerations. I truly enjoy a good meal, I may not be as svelte as I once was, as I unfortunately carry an extra stone worth of weight, I do regular exercise, and take annual trips to the capital for meetings and such, which helps, somewhat at least. Had I been born a dwarf I might have still considered it, the elementals they can summon as dungeons are less flighty, although from what I have heard more than a little dull conversation-wise.

I was looking at making modifications to my failed compass that had detected this new dungeon, when the crystal I had been using to measure draw strength on the mana field, dimmed by at least half. As the field detection apparatus was still pointed towards this new, suspected dungeon, the likely conclusion is that the dungeon expanded its exposure area to open air, meaning that what I had detected before was likely either a scouting mechanism, or bleed-through from a shield. In either case, it looks like the dungeon isn’t hiding itself anymore, it is a good thing the group that Franco sent to investigate should be here soon.

Also yesterday at dusk, in the town square of Iltasadum, 193 leagues to the north-east of James’s dungeon entrance.

Four hundred and fifty possessed orcs filled the town square, as 193 leagues to the south-west, James opened his dungeon, all four hundred and fifty orcs heads turned in almost perfect unison towards the disturbance in the mana field. The imp that possessed Ninazu, stood to the forefront, and proclaimed to the gathered abyssal host, “A new dungeon has opened, you Azhgrag, take ten of our numbers and corrupt it, an abyssal dungeon on this continent will give us an unshakeable foothold. The other races may try to interfere with you as it is closer to their borders.The rest of us shall continue to posses the remaining orc towns and villages in this part of the continent, then we shall attempt to corrupt the established orcish blood dungeon at Gazimbi to the east. We may not succeed at Gazimbi, it is always good to have options.”

Two days ago, shortly after sunset, 90 leagues from the town of Soria, along the road from Tudela.

We had just set up camp a good twenty strides from the road. The guild-master and Sven had put together one heck of a group to assess this potential new dungeon. I myself had challenged four dungeons during my 346 years, the capital dungeon at Mondrigal, the dungeon of the Jungle Botanist, the dungeon outbreak at Troinetsk, and the Eye of Illusion dungeon in the desert to the south and east of Troinetsk. Several others of the group had challenged at least three dungeons in their time, I think one of the wizards had actually challenged five. Speaking of the wizards, they, the sorcerers, and the shaman had spread out around the camp as is their usual habit and started their nightly meditation session, those of us even slightly magically inclined, including myself, can feel their pull on the mana around us as they fill their mana vessels, looking to increase their strength. Depending on what the pair that are seeking the location of the dungeon, indicate, it may be just as well that they are doing all they can to increase their strength.

We had been fairly fortunate today in that we managed to down a pair of pheasant and three hares, it is always a good day on the road when you are able to supplement your supply of way-bread with fresh meat. As I pulled out my quiver to check over the fletching of my arrows, one of the other archers called out to me from halfway around the campfire, asking “Felipe, what do you know of the Sorcerous Artificer Ramirez?” As I considered Raquels question, I glanced over the rest of the group, who all, with the exception of the five meditating magic uses had paused what they were doing and looked at me expectantly.

At times like this, it is difficult being the elected group leader, having everyone waiting on your every word, well, procrastination wont serve any of us, I leaned back, and started to answer Raquels question, speaking loud enough to be heard by the rest of the group. “Ramirez, I have not met him in person, however, he is considered one of the four most senior elvish sorcerers on this continent, and the second eldest among them. He is considered the most eccentric of the four, and up until about a hundred twenty years ago he lived in Mondrigal. At that time he was doing research into ambient mana field detection and mapping, and well he was correct in that the mana field in Mondrigal is under constant flux due to the number of sorcerous workings taking place on a daily basis. The crux of the issue was he wanted to leave Mondrigal and dedicate his time to his research instead of contributing to the teaching of new sorcerers and also spending time on the council of sorcerous research. From what the guild-master told me, Ramirez was making fairly serious research contributions to the council on a semi-regular basis at that time. After much begging, according to the guild-master, they managed to get him to agree to return at least once annually to share the results of his research, and if time permitted during his visits to the capital, give guest lectures to the students. He also, unusually for us elves, is somewhat overweight. Don’t mention it near him, as he is apparently more than a bit sensitive about it.”

That explanation seemed to satisfy most of the group, however, as I was just about to get back to examining my fletching, Diogo, one of the moon elvish swordsman in the group, and the only dual-wielder, asked, somewhat hesitantly, “Felipe, you said he was eccentric, did you just mean his love for food, or ?” I raised my head abruptly as I exclaimed, “Ah, yes, I knew I had forgotten something, guild-master Franco said that we should all be careful of any devices that he might give us to use against the dungeon, as they have a strong tendency to either not work at all, or to work all too well, leading to friendly fire incidents. Well, that was during their last delve together, about three hundred years ago, but still, it would be best to not accept anything that is meant to be used offensively, and to be extra careful of anything else he might give us.” Diogo, gave me a look, and half murmured, “lead with that next time.” He then returned to checking over his gear, the others started to do likewise, whilst talking amongst themselves. I sighed, shook my head, and muttered under my breath, “Yes well, lets hope we wont need anything from Ramirez then.”

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Today, just after dawn, fifteen leagues east of Iltasadum.

I had been running since just before dusk last night, my lungs and shins had gone past burning with exertion and had now reached that plateau of numbness that seems to exist before utter collapse. I had almost walked into town after a mostly successful hunt, when I noticed the blood and the bodies in the streets, my friends and neighbors, mixed amongst them and those reveling in their demise. I managed to stay my outcry in horror, as I watched the unusual goings on from the hedges along the southern edge of town. I watched as Ninazu spoke fluent Abyssal rallying the other people in the square to do something, a group of eleven left the square, and headed west of town, whilst the others seemed to prepare to move out en-masse towards the east. As I realized that, I broke from my position and started running east towards the nearest large town, Kizurra, straight through the forest, so as to avoid capture or death by the possessed. I was going to have to take a break soon, but not yet, I needed to get as far ahead of them as possible. I still had another 70 leagues of rough terrain to cover before I got to Kizurra. At least it was summer, and I didn’t have to do this desperate trek in waist high snow, even the ankle deep snow that there was could be enough to hide a hole that would twist an ankle, or worse, neither I, nor the orcish nation could afford that.

This morning, in the bunk room in James’s dungeon.

I stretched, as I awoke from probably the most restful nights sleep away from home that I have ever had. The adjustable mattress was a luxury I had never even conceived of, and now, I was wishing that I could take home with me. To my dismay, the straps attaching the mattress to the bunk were impervious to the knife I attempted to use to slice them, despite the fact they appeared as thin as a thread from one of my socks. If I stayed here too long I would be completely spoiled, the attached toilet and shower room, was incredible. Flush toilets could be had in major cities, but they certainly did not have the cleaning spray these had, which was a serious surprise initially. The showers though, oh the showers, adjustable temperature, adjustable flow rate, and even adjustable spray settings, such luxury, a knob and display for each setting, and then, when you were finished, an adjustable draft of hot air to dry you off. If it wasn’t for my stomach asking for breakfast, I might have been tempted to lie in, although that would be seriously unfair to Dimitri, as I had said I would get breakfast together this morning for us both. I wandered over to the kitchen and started the stovetop, then walked past it to the cold cabinet, and retrieved the left over stew I had made last night, putting it and the cast iron pot it was in on the stovetop to warm.

I then returned to my bunk, gathering my things in preparation for this mornings delve into the dungeon which we had delayed yesterday. A few short moments later I returned to the stovetop, stirring the pot occasionally and prepping a pair of the bowls the dungeon had provided. Soon Dimitri joined me at the table, having already made his own preparations for the dungeon. After we finished breakfast, I leaned back in the chair, and sighed in satisfaction, I then asked, “any thoughts on what to expect this morning?” Dimitri, having leaned back in satisfaction himself, his tail neatly threaded though the large opening in the back of the chair, replied, “not a clue, this place has been nothing but surprises, mostly pleasant ones, I really want one of those mattresses, but absolutely no idea, could be anything from a death trap to a walk in the park, let’s clean up and go, the day is not getting any younger.” A few moments later we gathered our things and left the comfort of the bunk room, the door closing itself behind us as we turned and walked deeper into the well lit dungeon.

The dungeons mana was clearly in the air around us, although not stifling like I had experienced at the dungeon of the Jungle Botanist, but certainly present, as opposed to the complete lack thereof in the bunk room we had just left. It was a short ten paces from where we felt the presence of the dungeons mana to where we encountered a doorway shaped panel, which we only approached due to its white coloration, which made it stand out against the comparatively dull grey of the rest of the wall. As we approached, the panel slid soundlessly into the left side of the wall. The opening was wide enough for the two of us to enter at the same time, however, not more. After Dimitri and myself passed through the opening, we smelled something which we normally would only smell in the aftermath of a lightning strike, or when a magic user did the same.

We turned sharply back towards the doorway, to find that the our side of the doorway’s edges were glowing a soft red light. Dimitri, slowly pointed his axe head towards the doorway, I gasped, and as I exclaimed “Don’t!” A small bolt of lightning appeared from the edges of the doorway and struck Dimitri’s axe head, causing him to yelp, and drop the axe. Fortunately for the both of us, it didn’t strike either of us, nor landed any closer to the doorway. This allowed Dimitri to retrieve the axe, after a few more moments of shaking his hand and cursing. I asked concernedly, “Are you injured?” He replied a few moments later, “Just my pride, and a little bit of singed fur.” I sighed in relief, and said, “Well, that was the first trap. Let see what else is in this room.” On the far wall, the was another closed discolored doorway, although, it too had a red light around the edges just like the doorway we had just passed through, to our right was a transparent panel with a green lit box in the upper right hand corner of the panel. Behind the panel, was a white light source shining from the bottom left corner towards a prism, there were, like we expected at this point, knobs on the panel, one that seemed to be affixed to the prism through the panel, and the other knob appeared to be only attached to the panel, as it was affixed to the wall with another of those indestructible strings, like the one that attached the mattress to the bunk. In addition to the prism, there were some angled pieces of some black material, preventing a straight path from the light source to the green box in the upper right corner, also several small mirrors. The knob on the string turned out to be detachable, and much like a lodestone, with the knob you could move a few of the mirrors up or down, and few others you could only rotate in place.

Lacking any sort of instructions to this puzzle, it took us about a candle mark to puzzle out that, the object of this challenge, was to split the white light with the prism, and bounce only the green light of the spread spectrum to the green box in the upper right corner of the panel. Once we had done so, the closed doorway to our left opened, and its red light turned green. A quick inspection of the door we had entered from also showed its light had turned green. A quick reach of my hand, Dimitri had given a quick shake of his head when I glanced his way, through the doorway we had entered from, showed that whatever had generated the lightning was disabled, and we could leave, or we could enter the next room.

A quick discussion later, and we both entered the next room, as we now expected, the doorway we entered through, now had a red light surrounding its edges. In the room, instead of an additional closed doorway on the opposite wall, there appeared to be a small closed cabinet about three cubits from the ground. On the right wall, was a much more complicated light puzzle, with three colored boxes, one on the top, left and right sides of the transparent panel. After our experience with the first light puzzle it only took us a half candle mark to get the red light to red box, the green to the green box, and the blue to the blue box. Having done that, the doorways light changed from red to green, and the little cabinet opened.

Dimitri and I wandered over to the opened cabinet and resting on a small pedestal was this odd looking tablet, with the numbers we had seen on the timepiece, in addition to many other symbols on various small raised dimples, and a small pair of transparent sections above those dimples. I reached in, and picked it up, it was very light and only slightly longer than my palm, although only as thick as a few sheets of parchment. As I looked it over, the lower of the two transparent sections lit, and displayed the symbol for 0. I had to admit confusion, I looked at Dimitri, and he seemed just as confused as I was, we would have to experiment with this tablet sized device later.

Overall, I was slightly disappointed by the size of the dungeon, the traps and the puzzles were interesting and different, with enough difficulty that it would take some time to solve them. However, we had not seen the dungeon summons, if there indeed was one, which I was beginning to suspect at this point there was not. Nor had we seen the core, or the path to open air that all dungeons seem to be compelled to create. I turned to Dimitri, and said as I turned my thumb towards the entrance, “Well, back to the bunk room?” He nodded as he said, “I have put in more skull sweat today than I usually care to. Let’s go back and rest a bit while we puzzle this reward out.”