Mason led the others through a series of similar rooms to the first dining hall. Small numbers of the same, relatively weak goblins were spread throughout a place that seemed like communal housing more than anything.

Mason and Phuong took point. And with Alex's shields, as well as Mai, Seamus and Streak watching their backs, they mostly just slaughtered their way through.

"This is almost too easy!" Seamus beamed as they killed the last goblin in a small barracks filled with bunk beds. "I'm totally going to get this quest done, I can almost taste the reward."

"Shut up before roboGod hears you and squashes us like bugs,” Mason muttered. “And what is your quest, by the way?"

"Oh, the usual," Seamus shrugged. "Purge with fire. Burn the unclean. That sort of thing. And then I get a big ol' experience boost."

Mason squinted. "Burn what, exactly? And when and how did you get this quest?"

"Patron." Phuong lifted a kind of flag hung on the wall, and found a hole burrowed behind.

Mason came closer and frowned, giving it a sniff but not detecting anything different. The goblins in the barracks hadn't seemed unusual at all, though there was a few wooden totems and some kind of incense in clay pots.

"That's not a very big hole," he muttered. "Even if I fit through that, I don't think I want to." Then he glanced back at Streak and activated Speak with Nature.

[Can you go through and take a look?]

The wolf yipped and practically charged into the hole without a thought, hunched down and vanishing almost instantly.

"But be careful!" Mason called after him, then sighed. He squatted and waited, listening intently for any sign of trouble through the hole.

"So I let the wolf thing go as just a pet, but uh..." Seamus cleared his throat. "Did you just...talk to it?"

Mason didn't bother looking over. "You shoot fire, that's pretty weird." He sighed. "I'm a druid. I talk to animals."

"No shit?" Seamus walked over and squat down next to Mason with a grin. "Druids are Irish, you know. Well, Celtic, or whatever. But my bloody ancestors, that's for certain. That why you're in here, then? Some kind of druidic blood ritual or some such?"

"Or some such," Mason agreed. He didn't exactly feel like explaining sex-powered immortal nymphs and teleporting between trees. "Where are you guys from, by the way? You have a settlement?"

"No, no, not us," Seamus shrugged and gestured at his companion. "Mai here was with me and Mac in a tutorial. We made a good team, stuck together. That's pretty much all there is to it, really. Came from the mountains to the East."

This got Mason's attention. "I haven't been that way at all. Is it just mountains? What sort of creatures? Did you see a coast or any other settlements you just avoided?"

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"Woah, woah," Saemus laughed. "A little equality, eh mate? Quid pro quo. I tell you a thing, you tell me a thing. Seems only fair, right?"

Mason squinted. "We’re all friends here. And I’m not sure if you've noticed, but my friends and I are currently pretty much carrying you through this dungeon. How's that for equality?"

Seamus smiled, but the bruised ego behind it was pretty damn clear. Blake would no doubt know how to handle the man and say just the right thing to keep him mollified, but Mason had no talent, or frankly interest. He was about to ask more questions when he heard a bestial howl echo down the tunnel.

"Streak?" he called. No answer.

Then he swore and tried to fit in the hole, but the second he got inside he knew he could hardly crawl and certainly couldn't fight.

"God damnit." He pulled back and took the rope out of his bag, then looked at Mai. "I need someone small."

* * *

Mai eventually agreed to take a look. "But no more talk of carrying us," she said with intense eyes as Mason tied the rope around her slender waist. He met the stare and nodded.

"Agreed. If there's any problem, just yell and we'll pull you back."

"The rope isn't that long," Seamus was saying as he paced. "Surely you don't expect for her to really get that far, and even if she did..."

Phuong took another rope from his bag and started tying it expertly to Mason's.

"Go on, please hurry," Mason said, and helped Mai crawl inside. She was even smaller than Streak, and with her head down crawled quickly on all fours until she vanished into the tunnel.

Mason clenched his teeth and cursed himself for sending the wolf, hearing that howl again and again in his mind. He wasn't actually at all sure it was actually Streak.

In fact he was beginning to think it wasn't, but what did that mean? Was the wolf fighting some other beast? Was it trapped? Had it been killed?

He had no kind of 'contract', no way to tell or know.

"I shouldn't have brought him," he muttered. With the way things were, and the powers and danger of things increasing, he was beginning to think he should keep Streak from danger entirely. He was strong and clever, but he was just a wolf.

The waiting was hard. They said nothing as Mason paced with little steps, his hands on the rope ready to pull. When they'd heard nothing for at least three minutes Seamus was starting to complain and say they should pull her back, then Mason hushed him as he heard the sounds of renewed crawling.

Mai came back out and dropped from the hole, wiping dust from her hands and knees as she stood, sweat gleaming on her brow.

"There's a cavern," she explained. "Some kind of...giant totem inside, wrapped by a giant serpent with...a ram's head, maybe? Surrounded by rocks. It didn't seem to know I was there." She could obviously see Mason's question and cut him off. "I didn't see the wolf."

A giant mutated…snake. God damn of course it was. And why on earth would Streak have gone inside? If Mai had snuck up why couldn’t the wolf? He was quite good at such things.

"Shit." Mason paced another few steps but knew he had to decide. The others might fit without him, but he couldn't send them alone. They'd have to find another way. His limbs pulsed with adrenaline and anger, a familiar restless energy telling him to act, to hunt, to kill.

"Follow me." He turned and walked back towards the unexplored doors. "We're in a hurry now. Stay sharp, and keep up. I want prisoners."

He heard Phuong mutter something like ‘oh boy, stay behind me’, but ignored him. He didn't stop and listen carefully at the next door. He simply opened it and charged through, finding a kind of storage area with crates and barrels filling one side of a larger room, the other with goblins at tables or standing nearby.

This time he activated Aspect of the Cheetah instantly, crossing the distance with Claws out, aiming for arms and legs. The goblins shrieked and reached for their weapons, stumbling over each other in panic as some tried to engage, others retreat.

The closest jabbed with its spear, and Mason slapped it away with his smaller blade, then cut off the arm that held it. He blocked a knife with his Sleeved forearm, then cut off the wielder's hand.

Blow for blow he relied on his speed, Sleeves and blades to meet every attack as he swirled around the room taking off goblin limbs until the other players caught up.

Phuong disabled one rather more delicately. Mai knocked another out with a swing of her glowing frying pan. Then the room was still and silent save for the agonized groans of the crippled goblins. Mason found the cleanest looking creature and lifted him by his shirt.

"The secret tunnels," he said. "A snake with a ram's head. Tell me how to get there, or I'm going to cut you apart piece by piece."

He practically felt the players exchanging looks behind him, but frankly didn't give a shit. The goblin nodded with wide eyes.