Colonel Marion Oakhurst dropped his copy of the Leader & Times next to his phone. He had not expected to find himself on another world when he had been posted to command a new base in Liberal Kansas. It had been surreal driving past The Land of Oz exhibit before arriving at his new base.

There was not much to see stateside, some fencing, a new office and mess building where previously a civilian house had stood, the owner being keen to relocate away from the world gate that had established itself in the middle of a quiet residential road. The gate wasn’t large enough to allow most current US military equipment to pass but it posed no problems for pickups and the like.

On Badonia, the base was much bigger with barracks, homes, target ranges, parade ground, an obstacle course and even a small factory to put together equipment sent through the gate in a dismantled condition. The first Bradley should make its appearance shortly.

Then there were the escaped and liberated slaves. Most arrived malnourished and bearing ample signs of ill treatment. The sight did nothing to endear the locals to his people.

Considering the reports he was getting from his scouts and – local auxiliaries, ex slaves for the most part regarding the armies the locals were recruiting he briefly checked what he had on hand to defend his sprawling base.

Colonel Oakhurst’s only worry was that he didn’t want to kill all those – defenceless – people, despite having a better than fair idea of what they planned to do due to having seen the footage of the Russian small town and villages after others of their ilk had passed through.

‘Maybe a few rounds from the 105s’ll be enough, well I can but hope, but one thing I’m sure of. They won’t pass!’

* * *

Mandy Carvalho and Marcus Smith were on their way to Boston with an extremely apprehensive mage who had never flown in a jetliner before. They were getting resigned to being jerked out of their comfortable Washington DC office and sent here and there as acknowledged experts on the weird doings of their new world. This time it was a new dungeon in New England, and not the kinky variety thank god. The aftermath of that incident in Atlanta when some outworld guild officials heard about the dungeon club...

Their flight was late but they navigated the airport in good time and there was a car waiting for them.

Taking turns to drive they were soon in New Hampshire and approaching Lake Sunapee. The address they had turned out to be a modest house overlooking the lake. There were several large dogs in the yard. They were invited into the house by Mrs Santanello and introduced to her daughter. She apologised that her husband had had to return to work.

Things looked rather different to Drassana of the White. They got out of the car in front of a fenced area containing ten dungeon monsters that looked like guard dogs. Once they entered the yard she could feel the dungeon. It was absurdly young but already powerful. She desperately wanted to put this into the hands of the Adventurer’s Guild.

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Then she met a woman and her daughter who claimed to be the dungeon’s mother and sister! They claimed that the system had changed their son/brother into a dungeon because he had been dying of cancer and his grandfather was that terrifying ocean dungeon on the other side of the Atlantic.

Drassana wanted nothing more than to leave this dungeon.

Carvalho and Smith went through the forms and obtained monosyllabic replies when they asked Drassana anything. The main thing as far as they were concerned was that Manfred knew how to create and maintain portals and Manfred’s disclaimer that without a Voice to allow him to claim a remote location he wouldn’t be able to create the network of portals he was being asked for.

“Not a problem, soon as we report in there will be any number of candidates for you to check out.”

It was a nuisance that Manfred had already bonded to this location, something they confirmed with Drassana but that was something that could be worked around.

* * *

When the feds had left Manfred addressed his mother. « Mon, do you think if would help if we told Uncle Ryan of my... our portal to gramps dungeon? He and his buddies in the SCA and their berony might be able to help us in return for access to gramps little dungeons. »

“That’s not a bad idea bro... Uncle Ryan got very intense about that dungeon thing,” added Carol.

“Yes you might be right, I’ll phone your father later and then if he agrees, we’ll set up a conference call with Ryan.”

Ryan had been very receptive and promised to organise things and get someone up to the lake soon.

* * *

“So this is the real deal, we have a former human dungeon in New Hampshire and he can create these portals like the one in Europe?”

“Yes sir, just like his grandfather in Europe,” replied Marcus Smith. “Basically the – kid – is allied to his grandfather, Antonio Muñoz the Luso dungeon and to another dungeon on one of the other worlds.”

“Can we work with him?”

“I’m sure we can, the kid’s smart enough to know he can’t act like the typical dungeon on one of the other worlds. The portals will give him much needed cash.”

“What about this Voice thing.”

“Antonio’s Voice is that catgirl Felicia, she was present at each location just before Antonio established one of his portals so it makes sense. I figure there will be lots of volunteers for the post if we pitch it correctly.”

* * *

Deep Diver looked up as his assistant showed a prosperous looking Sahuagin into his office. “Swift Biter to see you sir.” Diver straightened out and welcomed his visitor.

“My clients travelled through several worlds to attempt the new dungeon on Midgard but found that the entrance had been closed. Guildmaster Glow at Darkening told my clients that you were representing the local guild and that they had closed their dungeon. I am here to ascertain the facts and ask that you reconsider and open up the dungeon.”

Diver grinned and handed him a copy of the contract and explained what had led to Antonio closing his portal.

“This contract is with the dungeon itself!” exclaimed Biter in astonishment.

“Yes and Glow at Darkening’s guild clearly broke it,” replied Diver. “Now if your clients would like to sign a similar contract with my client...”

“Hmm... I suspect they might be interested, may I keep this...” asked Biter still scanning the copy of the contract. “Hah! You’re taking this through the commercial courts... You lucky bastard...”

“I’ll have you know that my parents were married.”