My party and I made it back to the town of Far Point, where we had been spending our time for the past month and a bit. It’s fairly quiet allowing us some peace while still being full of opportunities for cash and to increase our rankings within the guild. As our ranger Orkus, Venos the teams front liner, and I are moving through the decently sized port town I go over what we saw in that dungeon. Despite it being a graveyard dungeon there was a strange lack of death mana within it, though odd it isn’t too out of the ordinary for them to focus on other aspects of graveyards. What was odd was the strange energy that seemed to permute the entire place, even before that thing started forming near us. It was unlike anything any other dungeon had ever thrown at us, including the dragon and demon dungeons that were also a stones throw from this place.
What else was odd was just how new the dungeon felt, we had been sent for a disturbance in the woods and told of the old graveyard yet when we got there it wasn’t as if the dungeon had been there long enough to create the disturbances, it barely seemed ready for us, no roaming monsters or traps or even rooms beyond that one decrepit area. “Hey Ava” Venos says snapping me to attention of where we are, just outside the last hope guild hall. The place was build out of the remains of three other buildings stitched together rather chaotically and haphazardly, but it works.
We were entering the main tavern space, it smelled of drying ale and homely foods, it felt safe which was probably the point all things considered. Orkus was looking around for something before splitting off to the bar to get a drink or maybe a room, not really sure. Me and Venos though had to go to the main reception near the base of the stairs to turn in our last quest and to get a meeting with the guild master. “Ah Ava, Venos, how did the last mission go?” The smaller man behind the counter said, he had a large smile as he looked at us and his eyes glanced over quickly to the bar where Orkus was.
“it went well Damos, Orkus has the proof but we have more pressing matters with Delecas.” I said and the mans eyebrows raised in question. We are fairly big fish in this area but even we couldn’t just ask for the guild master without reason but we do have a pretty massive reason. “and can I ask what the reason for this is?” Venos glanced at me as I weaved a quick spell around us to muffle the sounds as he leaned in to speak with Damos. “We found a new dungeon on our mission.”
Damos went dead silent, something like this is rare beyond any belief, since most new dungeons are either seeded by the church, or destroyed by them before they could get anywhere. But here we have one that the church may not have spotted and thus could be free to grow, that was something to jump on as fast as possible. He looked between us and then to Orkus who was talking with the bartender as he polished a drink before nodding. “I’ll go inform the guild master right away.”
He stepped aside and quickly ran upstairs to speak with the guild master, as he did so I turned and looked around the room. The place had a few trophies hanging around on the walls from the dungeons in the are and some of the more impressive creatures the area is known for. King among them is a horn sitting over the mantel of the hearth, whether it is from a greater dragon, demon or even just a particualrly strange wild animal is debated, since only the receptionist and guild master know, though neither are going to say. What I find more interesting is a small stuffed wyvern that sits near a table, it seems one of the most powerful things here but no one ever seems to notice it.
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“he will see you two now.” I am startled by Damos’ return and glance between him and Venos, before nodding and quickly moving up the stairs, the lizard man right behind me as we ascend towards where the guild master’s office is. On the top floor is a few doors, three smaller ones and then a much larger pair of double doors at the far end. But instead of heading into that one which just leads to an old storage room, we instead head into a much simpler looking office, only having a few chairs and a desk. Though the chair behind the desk is specially made for it’s occupant.
“Ava, Venos, is what I heard true” The guild master has always been direct, living up to the nature of dwarves to a tee but that is probably from his time as a warrior more then anything. He had a shield that was about as large as he was tall next to the door and his armor was stood up behind him on an old armor stand, still well kept after all these years. “Yes sir” Venos says with a small nod and I can see the sigh rack through the guild master like the most annoying thing to hit him in years. He looks down at a paper on his desk before turning an old and experienced gaze up to us and motions for us to sit. “Explain everything, in detail, and quick if you want to get this figured out before the church.”
We began talking about the experience, starting with our mission to check around the entire forest for supposed monster sightings that could be problematic for the town. The rumors turned out to be nothing major, not even worth hunting down just something that scared the people on the outskirts. What was important about our conversation was the relative age of the dungeon from what we saw, what the dungeon was, and most importantly, the creature it sent after us. “it was like an elemental but something about it wasn’t quite right, like it hadn’t existed before and wasn’t thought out.” I said to Delecas as he took some notes.
“This is going to be a headache” He said as he looked at it.
“I would advise we remove the dungeon ourselves but….” Venos said
“It’s an unprecedented opportunity guild master” I finished the thought before the lizard man could convince himself that destroying it was the right choice.
“I have to agree with you Ava.” He nods quietly as he then taps a small report on his desk. “And keeping it out of the church’s hands should be this guild’s priority.”
As we are talking the receptionist returns and places a small open book onto the dwarf’s desk and leaves rather quickly, likely to keep an eye on Orkus. The guild master reads the section for a bit and a small smile begins to form behind the man’s well kept beard. “well there is some good news from the old rules the church had to agree with the guilds.” he pushes the book over to us and I look through the section he taps. “If it’s as weird as you say, then we may be able to chock up it’s weirdness to age, and old dungeons get special treatment between the guilds and the church.”
I read through the section again and again, it’s from back when the church was just starting to take control of dungeon operation and destruction. It was extraordinarily wordy, even for a practitioner of magic like myself it was hard to pars. But I looked at it long and hard before I got an idea of what it was, and what I figured out was that if a dungeon was controlled by the guild and older then the church, it was under the guild’s holdings instead of the church’s. It was clearly meant for the legacy dungeons like the two that are near here already, and to help adventurers grow in semi controlled environments. But the specifics of the rules might just be their downfall here, since it specifies older then the church, but not that they were controlled for longer then the church existed. It is definitely a loophole that most guilds couldn’t end up exploiting but the odd nature of this new dungeon just might make it work. Maybe.
