Caster climbed into Elenore's rucksack once again, hiding from the eyes of whoever lived in the underground city.

"Ahh," Keith tapped on the Gulper’s gums, the same motion he used to get it to let them into its maw the first time they got in.

The Gulper obeyed, and opened its mouth, slowly revealing the new world.

“Woah,” said Elenore, stopping to take the scene in. Though Caster could hardly see, only being able to peek out the back of the rucksack.

They stepped out of the fish’s mouth, and it closed its jaw, dipping into the water. Once again, only its antennae remained above the water, like a reed with a bulb, waiting for the next time it was needed.

It had brought them to a stone alcove, a cave hiding on the edge of a city. Most of the stone was old, covered with soft mosses, and naturally formed. A few scattered mushrooms colored white and blue carried a soft glow, lighting everything in the immediate area in the same way the moonrock did.

Keith led the way, and they followed. Around the alcove’s bend, straight onto a series of stairs. The formation of the natural cave and the wide, straight steps made by human – or Dagonian – hands melded together perfectly.

It was a short flight, Caster counted about 20 steps at the most out of boredom until he stopped. As they reached the top, the city revealed itself around them.

It was like Mainhelm had been painted black and green, then fell deep into the center of the earth. Not even the highest towers reached a fourth of the way up the walls of the pit that surrounded the city. It was as if a giant had decided to dig a quarry, then put a cap over it using the earth’s crust.

The entire landscape was black and green. The buildings, the roads, the walls of the quarry. Everything had been dug out of and around the stone. Lines of light flowed up along winding paths below the ground – the crevasses acting as guiding lines of light to those who stepped on the streets overhead. Caster realized it was moonrock, the lights shared the same soft glow.

New R’lyeh – Streets of Fogrun

Quest Updated! Next Step: Speak to the Archmage!

Hundreds if not thousands of Dagonians roamed the streets. Some had wheelbarrows of tools, others carried wares or purses of leather. Some walked, some hopped, but most combined both as a bizarre combination. Despite the natives being so alien, all their passing information cards signaled that they were all peaceful. A handful of the locals would bring their palms to their chest and say ‘Umbasa,’ in the same manner the child Barracuda did on Arder. Caster still had no idea what it meant, but it seemed to mean well.

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Just as they had in Mainhelm, the trio made their way through the crowds and markets, winding through the city for only a few minutes before a new split in the road appeared, both the stone and ores of moonrock splitting into different branches. Keith took the path leading eastward, away from the city.

“Where are we headed to?” Elenore asked as they crossed the narrow path so unlike the others.

Caster angled his view downward so he could see what was outside their path, but he couldn’t see anything beyond the few paces of stone that led them onward.

There wasn’t anything below them, literally. On both sides of the path, there was nothing but a steep drop-off into inky black caverns below. Caster reeled back into the darkness of the rucksack.

I did not want to see that.

“The Archmage. He lives right next to this city’s pre-6 training dungeon.”

“Oh, sounds fun! Maybe we should take Caster in, show him the ropes-”

“We are not here to have fun. We are to speak to the Archmage, ask him to return Caster to his human state, then bring him back to the council for interrogation. There will be no detours,” Keith stated. Elenore only sighed in response.

A handful of smaller, child-like Dagonians approached them from the cave on the other side of the chasm. They didn’t stop as Keith and Elenore hugged the sides to let them through, but they did give a few words of advice.

“Dungeon’s closed for today. Archmage Archibald put a ward on it, good luck getting through it,” one of the children said, casually passing by.

They crossed under an opening in the walls of the city, leaving the pathway and the eerie drop-offs behind. Now they were surrounded by narrow tunnels, slowly winding downward, deeper into the planet. Soon enough, the path leveled, and they came to a stop.

“What’s that?” Elenore asked.

Keith was silent for a moment. The sound of shuffling paper echoed throughout chambers, then silence came again.

Caster hadn’t seen them pass anyone since they had taken the secluded road, so he decided to poke his head out of the rucksack.

The air was damp, but it was better than the stale air he’d been stuck in the entire journey. He glanced around the tunnel to see if they were alone, and sure enough, it was only his party.

Looking into Keith’s hands, Caster saw the paper he held. The ink was messy, clearly written in a hurry. After a moment, Keith lowered his hands and looked at the wall he’d taken it off of. Only now did Caster realize the cave wall was carved at that point, flattened out by tools to resemble the front of a house. A wooden door stood only paces away, covered with moss just like the rocks.

“Damn it,” Keith groaned.

“What now?” Asked Elenore.

“The Archmage… he’s not here.” Keith began walking once more, following the flattened cave wall past the door and into another tunnel.

“Not here? Where’d he go?”

“The note says there was an emergency in the Dungeon Core he oversees. He said it’s about the ‘most forbidden danger’ and that the Dungeoning here was forbidden until he comes back. And if he’s not back within a day, to collapse the entire Dungeon.”

So that’s what those kids were talking about.

Keith stopped, his eyes locked on a glowing golden symbol, laced with hundreds of ethereal chains and words too intricate for Caster to make out without being able to squint at them closely. The symbol itself was hovering just above the surface of a massive boulder that had been rolled on its side, blocking any would-be adventurers from passing beyond it.

Keith sighed. “I guess we’re going Dungeoning.”

Sub-Quest Added: Find the Archmage - OR - Defeat the Fogrun Dungeon Core