* * * EARTH – ADVENTURER’S GUILD * * *

Jake and Jinny were feeling uncomfortable in their newly bought suits as they made their way into the White House. They were accompanied by a tall ugly looking half-orc with a wispy greying beard. Borantal, known as the Devious to his enemies, was wearing elaborately decorated silken mage’s robes. They endured being searched by the White House’s security detail, and waited stoically as they wondered why they had been summoned. ‘A matter of national urgency’ while sounding intimidating, did not clarify much. ‘Fetch your magical specialist’ suggested several possibilities. They were assuming it had something to do with the ritual they had been asked about.

They were hoping that that was the reason for their presence. At least they had looked into it, and thanks to their partners from Tarifax, they were ready to perform the ritual when asked.

As they followed the young lady that met them near the entrance, they were unsurprised to note that they were being shadowed by a couple of guards.

Borantal who had been looking thoughtful, glanced at Jake and said, “That magic detector wand they were using was very impressive. Any chance I could get hold of one?”

“I honestly don’t know. Depends where they got it,” replied Jake.

Their guide smirked, “They were a gift to the President from the Tyrant of the Isles.”

“Blue Lagoon,” clarified Jinny.

Borantal narrowed his eyes. “Oh,” he said.

After a long walk their guide ushered them into a large, well appointed room. It was full of important looking people, about half of whom were in uniform.

“Welcome to the US Mr Borantal. And welcome too, Mr Hennessy, Ms Mendez. Please take your seats,” said the man at the head of the table.

When everyone was in his or her place, the chairman got down to business. “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mr Hennessy, the founder and head of the System recognized Adventurer’s Guild. Ms Mendez is the second in command of the Guild.”

There were a series of surprised muted murmurs around the table.

“So, Mr Hennessy, can your organisation perform the magical ritual that will locate all extant dungeons in the USA?”

Jake Hennessey cleared his throat nervously, clearly intimidated by the company he found himself among. “Yes sir,” he hesitated, then he continued. “The Tarifax Adventurer’s Guild has kindly offered us the services of two experienced mages. Mr Borantal here is in charge of the Tarifax contingent. He... They have considerable experience with that ritual.”

Jinny Mendez added, “You do realize the ritual will reveal the approximate location of the dungeon, and its relative – strength, nothing else.”

“How close will you be able to pinpoint the dungeons?” asked director Wiseman, the new head of the FBI’s paranormal division.

“To within a kilometre. Usually less, but I’m told some dungeon cores are good at – obscuring their locations,” replied Jake, Borantal nodded in agreement.

An air force Lieutenant General scowled slightly, “Why are you relying on personnel from Tarifax? And for that matter how is it that you are in contact with them?”

“Erm, well sir, we on Earth are only just starting to learn what the System is offering. And, err, well, we simply can’t perform the higher rated rituals yet. Err...” Jake trailed off.

“We are learning fast, mostly thanks to our alliance with the Tarifax Adventurer’s Guild,” explained Jinny. “Even the Parthian Adventurers Guild has helped— And um, Blue Lagoon facilitated the contact between our Guilds.”

“Humph,” snorted the chairman. “That young woman has her fingers in entirely too many pies.”

“Possibly, Jaydee, but she has the ear of the President, and we are negotiating a comprehensive treaty with her,” stated the Admiral who was sitting at the chairman’s right.

Jake overheard his neighbour, an army officer, mutter sourly to himself, “Yeah, and the damn squids are in tight with her... smug bastards.” He also noted that Borantal’s eyes narrowed in speculation.

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* * *

The meeting continued for what seemed to Jinny and Jake to be an indeterminate time, they lost track of what was being discussed after a while. Borantal for his part sat quietly, taking it all in and evaluating those present. It ended with the decision to enact the ritual on the following day.

The government contingent was large, all those who had been present at the meeting were present again, and there were several others, who had not been deemed important enough to be present then.

The room the ritual was taking place in was large, and contained a small wooden table set within the centrally drawn magical sigil. Jake and Jinny were aware it was unneeded, but Borantal the Devious had assured them that this kind of thing tended to impress the local politicians and their hangers on.

Borantal was leading the ritual aided by Murinella Greythorn, his long time assistant. Also helping was Wiz, from the Earth Guild and Swiftfall Sunhigh. Borantal had been unwilling to include the Drow, especially as he was a follower of the Balancer.

Jinny and Jake watched as small dots were branded into the large scale map of North America. Jake’s eyes widened in surprise, he hissed, “There’s a Journeyman dungeon in Area 51.”

Jinny’s mouth dropped open briefly. “Wow!” she murmured back. “That’s another one we won’t be exploring. Looks like Canada’s got itself a veteran rated dungeon.”

“Yeah, and two others too. But the States have Blue Lagoon and Wonderland... Ah, I mean Mock Turtle,” agreed Jake. “And nine others too.”

Then the map was carefully rolled up and taken away. The large globe was placed on the table and Borantal repeated the ritual.

Once he had finished the new ritual, Borantal and his assistants staggered over to some chairs and collapsed, exhausted. The government people examined the globe excitedly. They were puzzled that the vast majority of the dungeons they had located were in the developed world. They found thirty-two distinct dungeons in all. The one that excited them most was located in Greenland.

US had the most, closely followed by Europe. Australia and New Zealand had five between them. Hong Kong one, just like Singapore.

* * *

Later, back at their Guild HQ, Jake looked round at his friends, old and new. “Can we get copies of those maps?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” grinned Borantal. He waved a hand languidly and a large map etched itself on the west wall. Once that was done he slumped in his chair and emptied a cold can of Budweiser.

Looking at Jake, Borantal asked. “Now, I want to hear how a dungeon has a title like ‘Tyrant of the Isles’, and is making treaties with what you tell me is the most powerful nation on your world.”

“Tyrant of the Isles sounds suitably dungeonish," objected Fidget.

“Mary Silvestre was one of the original people collected by Azurea. She was settled on Parthia. There she took up against pirates and slavers. I think that is how she gained the title ‘Blackbeard’s Bane’. That ended with her controlling a powerful trading empire. She even conquered a part of the mainland. She rules her country as an absolutist – thus tyrant,” explained Jinny.

“And she’s established herself on Tarifax, she rules over a small island and has numerous sea elf subjects. She has a sky navy and is trading widely,” added Swiftfall Sunhigh with as grin.

Borantal looked at them with slitted eyes, “Anything else? I am aware she is in contact with our Guilds.”

“She’s my goddess,” said Swiftfall smugly.

* * * EARTH – MAUI * * *

Teng Luoyang was starting to relax; his friend Song Kun was hunched tensely over the steering wheel of their hire car. They were nearly there. The yacht they had charted was waiting for them in the marina. They had been lucky, they had found the winged cat sunning itself in the middle of the house’s front yard.

Their improvised tranquilizer gun had worked; they had worried about the dose of ketamine, and had erred on the side of caution. But it had worked and the winged cat was now sleeping in the cat carrier they had secured on the rear seat. Cai Jun was seated next to it to keep an eye on it.

He hoped the colonel was right, and that this cat would be able to help them in Wuhan. They were all worried about their families back home.

Song Kun was driving carefully down the four lane S Puunene Avenue when he groaned, clutched his chest and slumped over the steering wheel. Their car swerved to the right, rode over the pavement barely missing two passing pedestrians and rammed a large spreading tree just outside the local Walgreens.

Cai Jun, who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt slammed into the rear of Teng Luoyang’s seat. Teng cursed as he was immobilized by the car’s airbags. Then, when he managed to fight his way out of the car he found himself surrounded by a crowd of the curious that included some good Samaritans.

When he saw the approach of a police car he tried to run, which, quite naturally concentrated the police’s attention on him. His day only got worse when Smokey made himself known, making use of his telepathy to complain of being catnapped.

* * * AMBUILA – MARKOWITZ * * *

Markowitz settled for the night in a hastily set up lean to. His muscles ached. The inhabitants of The Cove had made him work for his food. Hauling nets was hard work, or at least it became so after the second or third time he had to do it.

The grilled fish had been delicious. He had no complaints with the food, though he could already see that the diet was going to become monotonous soon.

The dilapidated coconut fibre hammock he had been given felt strange. But it was better than the ground. Not as good as a decent bed, but for now acceptable.

Where the hamlet sucked, was that they had no booze. He was already getting withdrawal symptoms. And he was sure it was purely mental, as this new body of his had never indulged.

On the following day he was woken at dawn. The village cook, an old harridan called Drassilla had handed him a bowl made from half a coconut shell filled with a porridge that stank of fish.

Markowitz had choked the glutinous mess down, and then Biritius the local headman had accosted him and said, “You say you are a hunter. Go hunt if you want to eat.”

Markowitz made his way into the grasslands seething. He swore he would show the smelly primitives that they couldn’t mess with him.