The Mountain Grotto Dungeon, Slopes of Mount Gursway, 20th day of Sol, 1661

Marisol commented, “Look, we’re here to enjoy ourselves. We know Monty’s not unhinged, so even if the evaluation team thinks there are problems with the Dungeon, all that will happen is they will negotiate whatever changes are necessary. Come on, let’s enjoy ourselves!”

Marta said, “They will truly negotiate?”

Bess sighed and said, “Yes. They only kill the Dungeon Core when either it is unhinged or cannot be reasoned with. Dungeons are just too valuable a resource. OK, let’s go.”

Bess jogged down the passageway, again about a time and a half longer than the previous one and arrived at another circular room and dived left into the room from the entrance, summersaulting and taking an assault stance. “Nineteen metre circular room, large tree in middle, vines from tree, ceiling higher than previous room and a smell of ‘dirt’ in the room.”

Marisol tumbled to the right, also taking the same stance. “I agree. Burrower worms!”

The 1-metre-long worm, with a tooth-filled maw, launched up out of the ground and attacked Marisol. Marisol still was using a staff, so she swung the staff at the worm, shattering its carapace. The worm died, produced a ‘fwrrrt’ sound, and a scattering of coins were spread over the ground.

Marisol froze in place, looking at the coins. “Leave the coins for the moment, lets clear the room first. I’ve got a strange feeling about this. Ouch.”

A dirt ball had hit her in the back of the head.

She spun around, looking for the culprit.

A ‘fwrrrt’, followed by a ‘fwppt’ came from her right, followed by the voice of Marta. “It’s the vines hanging from the tree with the bright green leaves. It’s a ‘Sod thrower’ vine.”

Marisol’s eyes focused on the offending vine and she launched herself towards it. Its tendrils pulled up balls of dirt and threw them at Marisol.

Marisol dodged and deflected the balls, working her way to the vine, which she hit so hard with her staff that she bisected the vine, which made a final ‘fwppt’ sound and died.

Another three balls hit her in the back, including another one to her head.

“Why am I being hit so much?”

With a smile, Bess said, “Because you’re a little out of practice and you’re not taking the Dungeon seriously.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Time to get serious, while still having fun.”

Marisol seemed to pick up speed and danced through the storm of dirt balls.

A couple of minutes later, there was a loud ‘thump’, followed by a wet, ‘thwuck’, followed by a ‘fwrrrt’. Marta said, “We have some stalactite monsters in the mix.”

Marisol said, “Well, that explains why I was hesitant about some of the coins.”

After a series of ‘pffft’s, ‘fwrrrt’s, and ‘fwppt’s, the room was silent.

Jeremy and Monty were watching everything on the monitoring crystals.

*So, happy with how things are going?*

“Yes, I am. We are seeing the first level at its hardest, and it is quite brutal. I think the only thing in retrospect is to swap the fire and ice rooms, but that is probably more to do with the fire room being more spectacular. You always start second guessing yourself in this situation.”

*I agree. Time for the pussy cats.*

Jeremy nodded. He liked how Monty thought. The Lynx’s will be more difficult, solely because the delvers would be on edge, waiting for the second monsters. It had helped him really appreciated using delver psychology to make the delvers work against themselves.

Marisol asked, “So, what was the treasure?”

Bess opened the chest she had just removed from the niche in the tree.

“Hmm. Not as much as the last room, but still a suitable horde for a hard, first level dungeon. Eleven copper pieces, five bronze, three silver pieces and two reasonable little sapphires. Looks like there will be a reasonable gem trade come out of Jessicaville.”

Marisol spotted the gleam in Bess’s eye about the name, so she just agreed. Bess was Bess, so she would always stir things up.

*Jessicaville? Really?*

“Yeah. It was some agreement that Jessica made with Bess when they first talked.”

*And you didn’t think to mention it?*

“Ahh, I was not sure how you would react at first.”

*And now?*

“I’m really unsure about how you would react?”

Monty snorted, then sighed. She won that, fair and square. *This does leave me with a couple of quandaries, though.*

“What to do about the name?”

*No. How I can, without any mouth or lungs, sigh and snort.*

Jeremy snorted, then they both laughed.

Bess was standing at the entrance to room number 7.

“24 metre diameter circular room with a single tree in the middle taking up about half of the room’s diameter. The ground is covered in a half metre tall grass and the tree’s branches start about two and a half metres above the ground. No monsters visible.”

The three of them dived into the room and stood up in a defensive triangle. There was still no movement in the room. They slowly advanced into the room, edging left around the central tree.

A scream from one of the lynx, who was just above them in the tree’s canopy, made all of them look up. This was what the three lynx who had been slowly creeping up to them through the long grass had been waiting for and they all pounced.

Marisol swung her staff and hit one of the bounding cats across its skull. A loud ‘fwppt’ signalled its death.

Marta swung her club at another of the surrounding cats, connecting solidly, also hearing the expected ‘fwppt’ and scrunching her nose at the offending smell.

Bess threw a dagger at the third cat bounding through the grass and missed, as the cat jerked to the side.

Missing completely threw off Bess and that moment of indecision saw both of the remaining cats leap on her. The dagger now in her off-hand, slit the throat of the cat that had leapt down from the tree, while the other dagger stabbed into it’s chest, but missing the heart. With a mortal blow, but not yet dead, that cat managed a claw raking, opening up Bess’ hand.

The other four cats arrived too late to do more than die.

The three girls reformed their triangle and Bess quaffed a potion to heal her hand. The blood slowed and then stopped as the wounds closed.

The girls spent a nervous quarter hour confirming that there were no other monsters in the room.

Marisol finally said what the three of them had been thinking. “He pranked us, didn’t he?”

Bess replied, “Basically. Let’s see what treasure we have and then move on.”

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

Bess checked the small chest they found near the exit to the room. “Trapped, poison needle on the lock and an explosive trap under the chest.”

Bess opened the chest and said, “Wow.”

She held up a single, medium-sized ruby. Marisol and Marta both nodded in appreciation.

Half-way down the passageway to the next room, Bess stopped.

“We have a concealed passageway here, on the left. Actually, we also have a very concealed passageway on the right as well. This one looks like a crawl way.”

A pop noise came from further down the passageway and all three girls turned to see Jeremy appear.

“Hey, ladies. Enjoying yourselves so far?”

Bess said, “Well, it’s certainly different to Jessica’s Dungeon. The difficultly has obviously been set a lot harder than Jessica’s. I thought that it was a good mix. I’d suggest that for your second level you need to concentrate a bit on establishing a flow for the floor. It’s not a criticism for a level 1 dungeon, but you will need to pull things together for your next level. You did it visually with the theme, but I felt a little disjointed with the monsters. It was a series of individual rooms, more than a Dungeon.”

Marisol said, “So far, it’s been good. A good challenge. You made me realise that I’d slackened off and needed to lift my game. I’ve enjoyed it.”

Marta wasn’t going to say anything, as she felt it was not really her place, but all three of them looked at her expectantly. She coughed, nervously, and said, “I don’t really have much to add. This has certainly been one of the harder dungeons that I’ve ever seen, but I think what stands out for me is what Marisol said. That you were able to shake some cobwebs lose from Delvers as experienced as us, says something. You are certainly a valuable resource, a valuable Dungeon.”

Jeremy nodded his head and said, “Thanks for that. I agree, Bess, this level was really about Monty getting use to how Dungeons work. I would expect following Dungeon levels to be different. Now he’s seen how things work; I think you will be surprised. Anyway, yes, the secret door on your right is the access to the Core Room. If you go through there, you will find the standard warning signs, telling you not to advance any further. Did you want to visit Monty when you finish your run?”

*Shit, I forgot that. Thanks for the reminder, dealing with it now.*

Warning signs in every know languages began to appear down the passage to the Core, including two different pictograph ones.

Bess looked at the other two ladies, got nods and said, “Sure, we would be honoured.

“OK, I will see you later. Enjoy the next room.”

Looking at Marisol, Bess said, “Well, that’s not ominous at all, is it?”

Marisol rolled her eyes.

When Jeremy returned to the Core Room, he said, “Sorry. I should have thought of those signs.”

*Thanks for the heads up. Why don’t you give Fancy and Mercy a call and remind them as well? I think they forgot them as well. Oh, and having real-life delvers in for the first time has been an eye-opener. I’ve increased the timer for the puzzle room to eight minutes, for this first run.*

“Ahh, you did not want your Aunt Bess to run out of time?”

*Sort of. I was mulling over what you said about the time, and realised that this was a once-off opportunity to give it an extra three minutes and get feedback for the Evaluation Team run tomorrow. If they were running tonight, I’d have not done it.*

Jeremy nodded, and said, “Yes, I feel more comfortable with a longer run. Especially since they do not know how many rounds there will be.”

Bess checked the concealed door for traps, then opened it.

A short passage led to a circular room.

“Oh, look! It’s a tree in the centre of the room!”

Bess laughed at Marisol’s use of sarcasm.

Bess said, “I think we have our first, true, puzzle room.”

Marta replied, “Do you think it was the large count-down clock on the wall that gave it away?”

Bess looked at Marta with surprise. “I think you’ve been hanging around with Marisol too much and her sarcasm has rubbed off on you.”

With a wry look, Marta responded, “Of course, there’s no way that I could possible learn sarcasm from you, Bess.”

Marisol laughed. “So, we’ve only got 8 minutes to do whatever. We don’t know what ‘whatever’ is, and we don’t know if there will be monsters, or something, hindering us, and lastly, we don’t know what failing the puzzle will result in.”

The three of them stepped into the room and approached the timer.

There was a flash behind them, and they turned to see a panel open in the tree trunk, exposing a pile of what looked like coloured pegs.

They began to move towards the panel when there was another flash behind them. They again turned, this time to see the counter start to count down.

A final flash occurred from the door, as it closed. Picture graphs on the back of the door indicated it would re-open either then the puzzle was completed, or time ran out.

They moved back towards the panel, and then they heard a voice say, “Welcome to the First level Puzzle room.”

A few seconds later, the same voice said the same message in a different language.

Bess grabbed the first set of pegs and said, “Five triangle shaped pegs.”

She gave two of them to each of the other girls and fitted the fifth into the triangle shaped hole she had already spotted in the trunk of the tree.

Every 10 seconds, the sign beeped and every minute a horn sounded and every few seconds the message repeated in a different language.

Bess spotted another hole, noting it wasn’t triangular. Within thirty seconds, they had found all 5 triangle holes in the trunk and inserted the pegs. A loud buzzer sounded, and another panel opened.

Marisol was closest, so she went to the panel and said, “Five square pegs. She gave two to each of the other ladies and walked around the trunk to where she had spotted a square hole earlier. She put the peg in the hole and started to look around.

Both Marta and Bess said, “I can’t find this last hole.” Marisol said, “Bring the peg over here, it’s in a rock, next to this bush.”

Bess brought the peg over and inserted it into the hole.

They were now down to 6 minutes left.

A buzzer sounded, and a horn sounded, then a flash was seen from the other side of the trunk.

Marta was the one who made it to the new panel first and pulled out the 5 pegs. “Five five-sided pegs.”

Marisol said, “Pentagonal, the word for a five-sided shape is pentagonal.”

Marta just rolled her eyes.

They’d each noticed a five-sided hole during their searching, so the quickly put three into holes, two in the trunk and one in the ground. Marisol and Bess each took one of the remaining two pegs and Marta started searching the ground.

Another thirty seconds, and Marta found another six holes in rocks, including one of the missing pentagonal ones, while Bess had found the fifth hole in the trunk, but a little higher up.

The buzzer sounded and a flash of light gave the location of the next panel.

Marta said, “So, the triangles were all five in the trunk. The squares were four in the trunk, one in the ground, the five-sided were three in the trunk and two in the ground, will the pattern follow?”

Bess reached the panel, saying, “Depends on how many sets of pegs there are left. We have five hexagonal pegs.”

Marta said, “Hexa-what?” None of the other girls noticed the impish smile on her face.

Bess said, “Six-sided pegs.”

Marta said, “OK, I’ll take three as I’ve already seen the holes for them in rocks.”

Marisol found a six-sided hole in the trunk, but Marta was wrong. She had found two holes, but the third had one more side. ‘Sorry, I was wrong. I found two hexagonal holes, but the third was heptagonal.”

Bess stopped and turned, saying, “Wait. You didn’t know hexagonal, but knew heptagonal?”

With an impish smile, Marta said, “Must be my poor upbringing”, then turned away and raced off. Bess laughed and continued on.

Marisol said, ‘Yeah, I’ve found another two heptagonal holes as well.”

Bess said, “Got the last one,” and slotted the fifth peg into its hole.

Marisol got back to the trunk to collect the next set of pegs. “Five heptagonal pegs.”

Marta again took three, running straight for the spots she had noticed the holes in rocks, Bess tried to take two, but Marisol said, “Mine!” and kept one. Bess shrugged and went to her first location, where she found that Marta had already put a peg into the ground there. She raced off to the next spot she had seen and put her peg in that hole as Marta rushed towards her spot. Marta laughed and ran off in another direction.

Marisol shouted, “I’ve found the one in the trunk.”

Marta shouted back, “Then this should be five.”

The buzzer sounded and a fifth panel opened.

Marisol climbed up on a branch and pulled the pegs out of the opening. “We have five round pegs.”

Bess stopped and said, “I’ve not seen any round holes at all.”

Marta said, “I’ve seen one, it was high on the tree trunk.”

Marisol replied, “Yeah, I can see two from here. Why don’t you, Bess, check around the wall to make sure, while Marta and I check the top of the tree? How much time do we have left?”

Bess said, “OK, we have four and a half minutes left.”

It took a full minute to find the last two pegs, as they had to climb each branch to find them among the leaves.

When the last peg was inserted, there was a flash from the base of the tree. Bess ran across and pulled out a little, golden apple from the panel. Once it was removed, there was another, much brighter flash, from the whole tree. Marta was able to hang-on, but Marisol was startled and slipped, dropping the one and a half metres to the ground.

“Ouch.”

Bess looked across and saw that Marisol was still breathing. “You, OK?”

“Yeah, what did we get?”

“Well, I’ve got a little golden apple, but the timer is still running, and I can see a lot more of these now on the tree.”

Marta had already started harvesting them, moving systematically around the tree canopy.

Bess climbed up and started harvesting in the same direction as Marta, but on the other side of the tree.

The three-minute horn sounded.

Looking at the pair, Marisol saw that this was obviously something Marta had done a lot, so she started where Marta had started, but went the other way, towards Bess.

They finished, but the timer was still running.

Marta asked, “How many apples have we collected?”

Bess answered, “Nine.”

Marisol said “Eight.”

“So, with my twelve, that is 29 in total. We had thirty pegs, so my guess is there is one more.”

When the timer got to the last minute, the beep changed to every second and the buzzer to every ten seconds. With thirty seconds to go, Bess said, “Got it! Its here, at the very crown of the tree, buried in among the leaves.”

When she picked it, a trumpet sounded and the room’s only door opened.

As they were checking the loot, Marta noticed that one of the little golden apples had something inside it. She shook it gently as she held it out towards Bess and Marisol. “This one has something in it.”

Bess started going through the ones she’d collected, giving each one a shake as well.

When Marisol started doing the same, she asked, “Does it open?”

Bess put two in front of Marta, saying “Two more.”

After closing examining it, Marta noticed a tiny indentation, a tiny dimple. Pressing the indentation made the little apple spring open, revealing a small, cut, topaz.

Repeating this on the other rattling apples revealed a diamond, an emerald, a ruby and another topaz.

Bess tried one of the other apples and it too sprung open but was empty. “A bit small, but I suppose this is the first level of a dungeon, so, really, a fortune for a group of starter delvers.”

Marisol said, “They would have to be level 4 or 5 to get this far.”

“Without losses,” added Marta.

Bess nodded, “Without losses.”

Marisol thought for a moment, then said, “Monty is going to get a bad reputation.”

Bess held up a finger in admonition, “No, the ‘Mountain Grotto Dungeon’ will get a reputation as a hard dungeon, that rewards well, if you survive.”

Marisol and Marta nodded and said, together, “If you survive.” The three got up and exited the room.