Interlude 1.3 The Opening (Guilds Point-of-View)

Bremarin Dungeon Office, Bremarin, Dverolion Empire

Dungeon Manager Centurio Ohannus looked up when a legionnaire stormed into his office without even knocking on the door.

"Centurio Ohannus, the Augurs send a message - they have detected four dungeons opening, one of them on empire land about two or three days marching from here. They say that the LifeForce spike was irregular but at the upper end of the regular scale."

"What? Where exactly is it and how fast can we get a troop there?"

"They say it is almost exactly on Blackmoss - depending on the remaining quality of the old road it could be either two or three days of marching to there."

"Run to the sixth cohort and tell them to prepare for a forced march. I'll join them in an hour and we will get there tomorrow to claim a new dungeon for the glory of the empire!"

Councillor K'tara Living Room, Leve'Talun, Combined Cities of Lefor'ga

"No, dear, I don't think we can allow your daughter to stay at the Ranger Camp anymore. I agree that her prank was funny and no one got hurt, but we also have ..."

There was a knock at the door and both the elven Lady sitting at the table and the Paut'a female lying before it looked to the door. "Yes? Please enter."

An older elven mage opens the door and makes a simple bow.

"Myladies, I have come from the mage tree to inform you that we have detected four dungeons opening at exactly the same second, one of them on our lands near Leve'Talun."

The Paut'a is the first to speak "Four at exactly the same time? That is highly irregular, there is no way that four dungeons could have been able to synchronise their development even if they were spawned at the same time."

The elven lady interjects "yes, but do you remember the message we received from the oracles half a year ago?"

"The one telling us that the gods have started games again? Games as in plural, and that some of those games need to proceed for our cities to prosper and that other games need to be stopped to prevent a lot of harm?"

"Exactly, and I think that only gods could have made sure of four dungeons opening at the same time. Unfortunately the oracle couldn't give any hints as to which games need to be stopped and which need to be helped - we have to proceed with caution and have to guess."

"Yes, that is the only thing we can do for now. Mowron, please send two squads of sworddancers and one squad of rangers to the position that you've found. Make sure any dungeon spawns are caught or killed, and report anything that seems to be unusual."

With a quick bow the elf leaves again and the two ladies return to their previous discussion.

Freedom Service Main Office, Hope of Freedom, People's Realm of Kaarg

The large office is bustling with activity, several clerks filing away data in various books or storing it into memory crystals. A female officer strides through the hall ignoring all of this, going to a section with a better desk than the others in the room.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Citizen, I'm here to report that the third circle has detected a dungeon opening about two days from Hope of Freedom. There are some irregularities concerning this opening and the Second Mage wishes for a detailed analysis of this dungeon."

"And why have you come here with this? The main task of the Freedom Service is to guarantee the freedom of all citizens by ferreting out any empirial spys and subversive elements hiding in our society. So why should I care about Dungeons that are the tasks of the third and fourth circle of necromancers, citizen messenger?"

"I do not question my superiors or my commands. Citizen, I was ordered by the Second Mage of the Third Circle to come here and tell you to send your people to that dungeon and analyse it."

"Grmbl - I don't even have enough watchers to make sure that there are no subversive elements left here in Hope of Freedom, and my police force is already overwhelmed to make sure that our realm stays free and prosperous, and now I have to divert some of them to a dungeon?"

"Fine, I'll do it - but take a message back to Second Mage Lia that I want a volunteer apprentice to be gated to the position to make sure none of the spawn get out. And if the first gate fails, send another volunteer. Now run back."

"I hear and obey for the Freedom and the Revolution, Citizen Chief!"

Still grumbling the chief reached for the cabinet containing his personnal files and checks them.

"Hey Citizen Hanson, send a runner to Citizen Owlkan, the commissar of the trade center - I'll have a temporary emergency reassignment for him. He should pack for quick travel and about one or two weeks of mission time. He is to report to me within two hours, ready to travel."

Reception, Rivansea Traveller's Guild, City of Rivansea

An old man with a large white beard stands at the reception, chatting with the young girl manning it when the door to the Traveller's Guild opens and a woman in the uniform of the city watch comes in.

"Hey Kerstin, can you get me - Oh, Master Orven, just the man I'm looking for. The City Council needs your advice and help."

"Certainly, Constable - what is the reason for your visit?"

"About one or two hours ago several workers and lookouts from the harbor reported that something moved or shifted on the Rock. Checks with fieldglasses confirmed that there is now some form of outcropping that wasn't there before, something that looks like a cave entry."

"Are you telling me that a dungeon opened on Rock Island?"

"Probably. We don't know because we don't have an adventurer guild that could check those things. But the council remembered that you were an adventurer for some time in your youth, before you became guildmaster of the Travellers Guild. So they want you to check on it."

"Never thought I would go dungeon delving again in my age. However, I can't really handle deep delving anymore. Please tell the council that I'll instruct some of your city watch people in how to contain a new dungeon - I'll need four watchmen per shift, at least two of [Very Low] or higher rank. Placing [Limited] watchmen recruits there would only put them at risk."

"I'll make a quick survey of the first floor only and report what I suspect the dungeon cores ranking might be. But anything else has to be handled by professionals depending on what I find on the first floor. The council will have to front that cost. Luckily there is a group here that can handle almost anything..."

The man raises his left hand and touches a ring there with his right, muttering "... now where in this damned storage ring have I placed... no, not the asfen-wand although I thought I lost you years ago... remind me to give that food to the cats behind the guildhouse... ah, there you are!"

Two crystals materialise on the reception's desk. Orven pockets one and pushes the other to the receptionist. "Kerstin, please send Muriel with this crystal to the 'Iron Cauldron', for the last week the Sky Arrows have been staying there. She should ask them in my name if they could remain on standby tomorrow - I don't want to raise them for a black-ranked dungeon, but if it is anything that I can't handle I'll flash them the beacon, and its twin will be placed on the new dungeon entrance so that Park could trigger a gate there."

"Constable, the Rock is almost barren and there is nothing with any fighting capacity on it that the dungeon could gain. If the dungeon has a spawn that can be modified to enter the lake - there are only two or three places where it is even possible to climb up from the water, and most spawns would have problems finding them in time, especially after a water fight and trying to drag anything with them. But because of that difficult climb, we need to get there with equipment for it - that takes today to prepare."

"Have the council hire one of the fishing ships and have the winch for drawing nets reconfigured for cargo lifting. We'll need a number of logs and ropes and some tents for now to build and man a blockade. Have ten of your people ready to leave tomorrow dawn ready for combat. We better take two or three rowboats along to help in the landing and to check the other places where someone could climb up to the rock."

"That should be sufficient - now please leave me for my own preparations, I'm no longer a young adventurer. Kerstin, after Muriel returns send messages cancelling any appointment I have in the next three days."