"I don't like the way that crack will force us to fight single-file," Garrik said. He, Raek, Ba'Rush, and a Fae in skull face paint that Eira assumed must be Lithel gathered together just inside the treeline and out of sight of the cave.

Ba'Rush shrugged and adjusted the big cleaver he used as a sword. "It will do that, but defenders will have to fight single file too. I don't mind that at all."

"If it's a dungeon, the monsters are only part of the challenge. I would be more worried about traps." Lithel waved a long-fingered hand back toward the cave. "Traps like a long, narrow passage that can squeeze shut to crush everyone inside."

"So we need someone who can take plenty of damage and laugh it off." Eira slapped Garrik on the back. "Enjoy yourself."

Raek pressed a thumb to his chin. "A strong fighter in good armor for the lead and the rear usually makes sense, our Garrik here or Ba'Rush." He shook his head, "But Lithel makes a good point about traps. I have trained [Detect Trap] to a good level and I have a Limited Invulnerability charm that should allow me to survive any surprises long enough for us to retreat if necessary.

Eira exchanged a look with Garrik. A charm like that would likely be consumed when used. It was an extremely rare and valuable item to spend on what Raek had continued to insist was just an escort mission. He either had great faith in his chances of building and keeping a dungeon city, or he had some other lucrative plan in mind that he hadn't shared.

She couldn't fault the logic though. Raek could take the lead. She hadn't trained to take punishment like the martial classes, but she would keep a close eye on him. She suspected they all would.

They spent the next hour preparing. Garrik and Ba'Rush put on their heavy armor. Lithel donned a lighter set and strung one bow while storing another, unstrung, alongside a full quiver. He also wore a needle thin sword and a small ax.

Eira, for her part, cast what few beneficial spells she knew on the small party and herself along with the ones they could manage for themselves. The other fae she had noticed before, a woman, joined them as a healer and Eira heard Lithel call her "Sella."

Sella apparently could sense Eira's death magic, she curled her lip and glared as if she might snarl.

When they chose a marching order, Raek took the lead, followed by Garrik, and Lithel, then Eira, Sella, and Ba'Rush. They were barely across the meadow toward the cave and Eira was already feeling her back crawl with the expectation Sella might drive a dagger in it before the day was over. She welcomed the feeling. It keep her from becoming too complacent. These bandits were not friends.

The crack in the stone was narrow enough that Garrik and Ba'Rush had to walk sideways. It became pitch black after only a few steps, so Garrik mounted a glowing stone in a socket in his helmet. Eira followed his lead, waving her staff until it glowed. More light came from behind Eira, presumably from Ba'Rush since both Fae would be able to see in darkness by mana sight.

Raek continued forward, slowly, but confidently, using a folding rod to prod the floor now and again, but seemingly unconcerned about the walls to each side.

After a much shorter passage than she expected, Eira stepped out into a large cavern decorated with centuries of dripped stone. It looked natural and undisturbed. The ceiling curved far overhead, partially obscured by a boulder the size of a large building in the center of the room. The way was clear to the left and right. On the left, there was a long dark opening at knee height. She thought at first it might lead to another chamber, but when she crouched and thrust her staff toward it she could see the faint reflection of the cavern wall just a few feet inside. It was a perfect place for something dangerous to lurk, but it seemed empty.

Noticing her gaze, Lithel nodded and said softly, "This cavern would make a perfect den for some beast, probably generations of them, but there is no sign of any ever making a home here, not by spoor, leavings, or scent."

"Maybe the crack just opened?" Garrik asked.

"That would be a bad thing." Raek whispered back to them without turning. "It would mean we are at risk of collapse."

"It's not recent," Ba' Rush said from the back. "Or not natural if it is. There's no rubble, not a pebble."

They explored the cave carefully, finding that the way curved around to make a circle around the big stone in the center and even Eira, who was not one to spend time visiting caves, could see that it was oddly clean and tidy. Two passages led on, larger and more rounded than the crack through which they entered, and here also the floor was flat and relatively smooth with a regular width that seemed artificial. Maybe someone had carved out the floors to make these paths?

"Left or right?" Lithel asked.

"Start left, stay left," Garrik said. "First rule of mazes."

Raek nodded his agreement and they followed him down the leftward passage.

It was tall enough for them all to stand comfortably and wide enough they could each walk facing straight ahead, even Ba'Rush.

The next chamber was as big as the first, but instead of a big stone filling the center, there were ruins of what seemed to be a temple, fallen to disrepair. An odd beam of light came through a hole in the cavern ceiling to highlight a jumbled-looking statue in the center, carved in dark stone.

"Is it a fire altar?" Sella asked before she could properly see around the others. "It doesn't look like one." She added once she stepped from behind Eira.

"It's not." Ba'Rush said. "But what is it?"

The ruins where a simple, flat platform that had originally been enclosed by stone walls.

"Etruscan?" Eira doubted it, even as she said it. There were no columns at all and the roof seemed like it had been curved into arches. The statue in the middle was surprisingly preserved. In fact when she looked at it, it didn't seem like a statue at all. "Careful, that part's alive!"

Lithel looked back at her with an amused grin. "You've noticed, have you? golems. Three of them."

She held out her staff and Garrik did something to brighten his stone. With more light from the sides it was easier to see that the jumble of limbs belonged to three golems frozen in some sort of struggle over a bronze sword which was the bright point of the obviously magical light's focus.

They fell back into battle order and drew closer carefully, weapons ready. Once they were close enough, being monsters, she could see their status, three golems, each level one, and each with a name, "Magic, Might, and Mystery."

The party waited for some time, but the golems didn't seem to be aware of them, or perhaps their instructions didn't include intruders. It was always difficult to tell with golems.

"They certainly seem interested in that sword," Lithel observed, a hint of greed in his voice.

Raek chuckled. "The sword's name is 'Echoing Thunder'. It's low-quality bronze, but it does have a strength enchantment."

"Sounds like a name meant for a hammer. Is it cursed?" Garrik asked.

"Oh yes." Raek nodded. "But Sella could use it, if she wanted a sword, she'd be immune to the effect."

Sella frowned. "What effect would that be?"

Raek shrugged. "It doesn't matter, you don't use swords."

"Well, if no one else wants it, the thing might be worth a few coins as a curiosity, at least." Lithel shook out a thin hide, covered in faintly glowing glyphs and patterns. He wrapped it around his hand and stepped up to take the sword.

"Shouldn't we explore a bit more before we start looting the place?" Garrik said.

"Yes." Raek said, but did nothing to stop Lithel.

"Where's that eager bravado you adventurers are so famous for?" Lithel tugged but nothing happened. The golems seemed indifferent. He stored the hide away in his satchel and stepped back into formation.

"Satisfied?" Raek said.

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Lithel didn't answer, as they all continued through another passageway.

Eira looked back over her shoulder more than once to make sure the golems didn't follow them.

The passage led to a small room with a stone door. The floor was cut with channels in which stone blocks rested. Each block was, in turn, carved with symbols that were difficult to identify in the dim light.

Raek spent some time exploring the room on his own, examining each corner and block. "The door has no obvious lock mechanism, but I would think it must be tied to these blocks in some way, just because someone went to the trouble of creating them."

"A puzzle." Garrik's voice was thick with excitement. "We are in a dungeon then."

Eira frowned, but it was Sella who said what she was thinking.

"The air would be thick with mana in a dungeon, and we would all feel it weighing down on us. Do you feel any pressure?" She looked at Eira. "How about you, bone botherer, you feel any mana flowing through these walls?"

Eira shrugged. "Not like I would expect, no, but there is something…" She couldn't describe it, but she did feel something, an affinity in the mana in the golems and the stone of the floors and walls, but it might mean nothing. They were likely all made from the same local stone.

"Something." Lithel's tone was mocking. There was a deep scorn behind it she hadn't noticed before. Sella didn't like death magic, but what was Lithel's problem with her?

"There's no lock here for me to work, so we will have to determine what to do with these blocks. It looks like they move along these channels." Raek demonstrated by pushing one of them a few inches. It grated loudly but moved. No traps fired, and the ceiling didn't fall on them.

They spread out and walked around, looking at the blocks from different angles and bringing the light closer.

"Maybe we need the sword," Lithel said.

That sounded wrong to her. She looked at the channels and the blocks. "These carvings look like the phases of the moon. Maybe we should put them in order?" She pushed a stone she took to be the new moon and moved it down the channel to the font. She had to move other blocks around to the side channels to swap them so that she could get past them and back to the main channel. Once she finished the first, the rest of the party joined in, and they soon had all of the blocks in order.

Nothing happened.

"Maybe it's a dead dungeon?" Ba' Rush offered. "Part of the old dungeon?"

Eira shook her head. "The eye says otherwise."

"Then maybe the blocks should start or end with the current phase of the moon?" He pointed. "It should be gibbous, not quite full."

They set to work and re-arranged the blocks, ending with the current phase of the moon.

As soon as the last block was set, the door slid open. It was quieter than moving the blocks.

"What's with all of these plates?" Garrik said as they entered the next room.

The room was the same size as the puzzle room, but it was lit by torches burning on the walls and there were tables covered in seemingly random junk. Plates were propped up on wooden chests around the room.

"Is it a trap?" Lithel asked. "Does someone seriously think we would just grab a plate?"

Eira didn't point out that this was exactly what Lithel did with the sword.

"Look over there," Sella pointed to a yellow stone that reflected light from one of the plates that seemed angled specifically to highlight it.

"Even more obvious." Lithel made a derisive noise and looked at Eira again for some reason.

"No traps that I see." Raek had been checking under tables and using his rod to check between the walls and table legs.

"And still no magic," Sella said.

They left the contents of the room alone and continued through the next door and down a finished corridor that curved to the right. It ended in a feast hall, brightly lit with torches. The table was set with mounds of food.

"Who is their chef?" Ba'Rush sounded offended. He took a deep sniff. "This mess makes less sense than a millionaire's feast. Garum marinated meats and candied fruits in the same dish?" He seemed completely oblivious to the only thing in the room that held Eira's attention.

At the head of the table, a skeleton slumped to the side. A dull crown still mounted on its skull.

Raek was looking in the same direction she was. "Hmm, poison maybe?"

"Another puzzle?" Garrik asked. Maybe we're meant to do something with the food?

"I'm not touching that stuff," Sella said. "Like Ba'Rush says, it smells wrong, yet I find myself hungry. It's bound to be a trap."

Raek nodded. "Agreed. It looks like our path takes us through this next door so we—"

As Raek spoke the skeleton jerked, nearly dropping its crown, but steadied it with a hand and sat up. "Welcome," It said in a hurried mumble. "That is." It continued in a louder voice. "Welcome! You have awakened me from my endless slumber, but still I am trapped here. Will you help free King Cecil from this vile curse and gain the reward and my gratitude." The skeleton waited, fixing Eira with a gaze that seemed halfway between longing and terror.

Eira found the whole display embarrassing. Who would give a first-level skeleton a job like this? "How can his sleep be endless if he just woke up?" Eira whispered.

Garrik shrugged.

The skeleton paused for a long moment as if expecting an answer. Eventually, he continued. "Long has my spirit been imprisoned here by a foul monster that can only be slain by the enchanted blade, Dread…, that is, I mean to say, Echoing Thunder. Take heed of my advice, and know that the yellow light of the Sun may free the treasures of the Moon!"

The skeleton then slumped dramatically. The crown finally fell from his head into a plate of fish.

Eira frowned at the skeleton and his stats. It being undead, she could see a great deal. The only true thing that he had said was that his name was Cecil.

They all shared a look. In silent agreement they turned and left, back the way they came.

No one spoke until they were across the meadow and back in the treeline.

"Golems holding a sword we're meant to take to some skeleton king. This is the part of the story where we unleash some ancient evil, right? That's how this story goes." Garrik said.

"Those golems are level one, barely even a nuisance, let alone a threat," Lithel said. "Pathetic."

Eira nodded, "The same for that skeleton, that's no ancient king's restless spirit, it's just a first-level summoned skeleton mage."

Ba'Rush wasn't convinced. "Who keeps those torches lit, the food fresh? Maybe this is a dungeon after all?"

Sella shook her head. "There's barely any mana in the air. If this were a dungeon the mana would be so thick it would feel like water."

Lithel glared at Eira. "It is precisely as if an apprentice wizard created all of this as a ruse to convince gullible delvers this was a dungeon."

The others also turned to look at her, even Garrik. The question in his eyes hurt more than she would have expected.

"I didn't! I wouldn't! I haven't ever been this way. Garrik can tell you I've never traveled more than an hour from Suru's Rest since I came to this blasted province! Look, if this is a hoax, they've done something to fool my amulet, and I don't believe that's possible."

"What is this amulet anyway?" Lithel demanded. "Why should I think that's anything more than a cheap cantrip on a cheap bauble?"

"She's a Briar," Sella said, with barely contained disgust. "I wouldn't trust anything she tells us. Better to gut her now before she tries something."

Raek raised his hands in a calming gesture. "Yes, she's a Briar, and that's precisely why we should take the amulet seriously. It's a family heirloom that is claimed to be able to find places of power, like a dungeon. I don't think any of us doubt the Briar family would have such things? We go back in, and we find out what this is all about. This may be a simple fraud, but that explanation doesn't fill the bucket for me." Raek shook his head. "There's something more here. Something hidden, I know it in my bones."

"I'll go, but if this turns out to be a waste of time, it's going to cost you," Lithel said. "I'll share what we've found with the others before we return. Sella, with me."

Raek and Ba'Rush were silent as the two Fae walked back to the line of bandits.

Garrik started to ask a question, but Raek silenced him with a look.

"Fortunately we didn't use any provisions on this delve so far. But I agree with Lithel, we need to make some profit off this venture to make it worth our while."

Eira, still angry at being accused said, "Here I thought you were just–"

But Raek silenced her too with a serious expression, then scratched his ear.

Suddenly she understood the same thing Garrik had realized. Fae had exceptional hearing.

Raek gestured with his eyes and eyebrows toward the bandit line, then carefully reached down with his hand, to the side hidden from anyone watching from the treeline. He made a dagger appear from nowhere then vanish again. "We need to make very sure that everyone is fairly compensated for their time." He continued, as if admonishing Eira. "That's ALL I'm saying."

With the message received by everyone, they waited without further conversation until Lithel and Sella returned. Most of the bandits came with them.

"It seems we only need a small guard out here, but there's no telling what we might find in such a mysterious dungeon." Lithel's smile was a hard, glittery thing. "It's best we bring reinforcements."

Raek just nodded and smiled as if it was his own idea. "Are we ready then?"

Garrik nodded and loosened his sword in its scabbard. All the earlier excitement seemed gone now, replaced with businesslike focus. She couldn't tell if he was blaming her for getting them into this situation, but how could he not?

It was obvious now that whatever happened in that place, regardless of whether it was a fraud or a dungeon. Not everyone was coming back.

As they set out across the meadow, Raek, Ba'Rush, Garrik, and Eira walked surrounded by bandits who didn't bother to hide their hostility. Lithel and Sella led the way.

With the course set so clearly, Eira found herself relaxing. She'd spent so long trying to please everyone. First her parents, then Theus, even Garrik. She had always known, somewhere deep inside, that they would betray her.

The thought of what was coming didn't bother her as much as she had expected. Things were so much simpler this way. She found herself, finally, smiling.