She fumbled in her bag for a while and pulled out an old, weathered book. It was just a children’s book, one of many her mother and father would read to the two at bedtime. This one was her least favorite and she was willing to part with it.

  She dropped it within the slot, and the room was illuminated in a glow. The duo backed off, ready to flee, but soon it subsided and the box folded open. Within it was the upper half of a mechanized humanoid; it was featureless but held the book within its hands.

  The unfolded box formed a table around the automaton. The construct placed the book on the table. A metallic, tinny voice echoed from the construct, “Your offering has been accepted; ask your question.”

  Gloria turned to her brother, who just shrugged, so she chose something unimportant to test the limits. “What is the recipe for a Golden Root Pie?” It was her favorite and her mother had never gotten around to teaching her.

  The construct raised its hand as a paper formed its hand. It placed the paper upon the table. “Your answer is upon this paper.” The halfling gal slowly approached the table and grabbed the paper. After a hasty retreat, she scanned through the contents and it seemed correct. “Thank you for your exchange; you may make another one at any time.”

  The girl was absolutely flabbergasted at it all, her brother even more so. “Why?” She asked the construct, not expecting an answer.

  “I live to serve the god of libraries, Armand the Librarian.” The construct said, “By his grace we help preserve the knowledge of the ages.” The girl seemed satisfied with the answer; she said several thanks as she and her brother moved back into the entryway.

  Meanwhile, back at the main room, the actual Armand was patting himself on the back. For the first experience, he wanted to puppet the construct he had specifically made for this purpose; this model he deemed as the librarian.

  It was designed to be nonthreatening in many ways; first, it stayed hidden in the box to not frighten people before triggering it. Once accepting the offering it would then use magic to create an answer for the question based on the knowledge in the library, or at least the information that he read through.

  For this first run, he carefully puppeted the automaton that he deemed the Librarian. The purpose of the construct was simple: share the good word of Armand, the god of libraries. He originally thought of deigning himself as the god of books, but unfortunately that position was taken.

  Hopefully the dwarves would also take the bait and ‘exchange’ information with him. He didn’t need them to share the dungeon; it automatically copied all the knowledge people had encountered, but it seemed thematically appropriate for his path to godhood.

  Just as he had hoped, the siblings had soon shared the information with the trio of dwarves. “This seems to be a plane attached to a god rather than a dungeon.” Spoke the more scholarly dwarf.

  “I want to agree, Brother Tondro, but a god has not been spotted in our world for thousands of years.” Spoke the eldest lead brother.

  “Whatever it may be, we may have stumbled onto a most fortuitous encounter.” Spoke up Tondro.

  “Of course youth think that! It could just be an extremely elaborate plan to separate us from our flesh.” Said the more cowardly dwarf.

  “At ease, Caldeu.” The leader said, calming the man. “We do need to find a map of the surrounding area and this may be a good opportunity.” He walked up to the siblings and patted the gal on the head. “I know you were being curious, but be careful.”

  “I will next time, big bro Alder.” The girl said, a little flush on her cheeks. He nodded in satisfaction and turned to the other dwarves.

  “Okay, let’s go see this ‘god.’” The leader dwarf said again.

  “It’s not a god, but rather a servant of him,” Gloria corrected as the five of them headed into the other room. The librarian had retreated back into the box. “You have to put in a book and it comes out like a jack-in-the-box!”

  The dwarves looked at one another, and the scholarly one pulled out a book from his bag. This one was just a basic book on dwarven culture. Tondro dropped the book into the slot and like before, they all backed up as the box folded open and the mechanical man was revealed.

  “Your offering has been accepted; ask your question.” Spoke the librarian.

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  ‘We need a map of the surrounding area.” Alder requested. The automaton nodded and began to summon a large sheet of paper. After it manifested, he set it upon the table.

  “Your request has been fulfilled; do you wish to continue your trade?” The automaton asked of them.

  “Can we ask you questions about the library without exchanging information?” Trondo excitedly asked.

  “Of course,” The tinny voice of the automaton confirmed.

  “What are the limits of the library and any rules that need to be followed while here?” He asked.

  “You are free to explore the library and the gardens around them; the game and plants in the gardens are also free to hunt and gather but you will not be saved if you bite off more than you can chew.” The automaton began, “However, there are areas clearly marked as forbidden; should you enter those areas, your life will be forfeit.”

  “I don’t like that part,” Caldeu whispered under his breath.

  “What about rules involving the books?” The scholarly dwarf asked. He was already salivating at the idea of reading through all this information.

  “All books in the unrestricted section are free to read, but they must be returned to their shelves when done.” The librarian explained, “Individuals who remove or damage books from the library are subject to termination.” Causing another collective gulp from the group,

  “Is it possible to withdraw a book from the collection?” The scholarly dwarf could not help but ask.

  “Of course,” the librarian then elaborated, “with a gift of sufficient knowledge, then a copy of said book can be made and removed.”

  “Any other rules we should be aware of?” Caldeu couldn't help but ask in his worry.

  “Only one; this place is a neutral ground; there are to be no conflicts here. In the case of a conflict, it will be dealt with swiftly.” The librarian’s tone left no questions amongst the group.

  The five looked amongst each other; they split up to explore the library. Armand created the restricted section for multiple reasons, to hide his existence within, and second, to isolate knowledge he deemed too dangerous to share with the world.

  Sentinels were set to guard the entrances to the ‘forbidden’ section, in plain view so there was no doubt where the death zones were. The group moved through the library; they cautiously pulled books from the shelves, expecting monstrosities to pour through the wall. When nothing occurred, they became more willing to explore the large catalogue available to them.

  After exploring the library and its contents, they moved to the “gardens.” These were just the wilderness sections of the dungeon that Armand used to farm souls and for recreation. For the adventurers, it was a gold mine of food and herbs to restock their supplies. Perhaps calling them adventures was a bit of a stretch, thought the goblin; it would be better to call them refugees.

  Even with that, his main goal had worked; he felt a faint energy coming to him. It was warm and foreign, but he was pretty sure it was faith energy. Mainly coming from the halfling girl and the scholarly dwarf, if he could get enough people, ascension would be simple.

  He left them to their devices; the sentinels and the librarian would handle anything yet to come. The goblin decided to indulge in some literature of the highest quality.

  The refugees had caught a deer and filled their bags with plenty of fruits and vegetables. They made sure to drain the deer and clean themselves thoroughly in one of the rivers to prevent ‘damage’ to the library.

  They treaded through the library as if it were sacred ground; for all they knew, it was. The group made it quickly back to their dormitory; they didn’t notice that a small amount of their wine had gone missing. Of course Armand could not resist checking out their stuff while they were gone.

  He was providing them bed, shelter, and food. So he only felt slightly guilty as he had one of his readers go snoop. The goblin also took small amounts of spice that were not already in his collection.

  The group skinned and speared the deer over a cooking fire in the kitchens. They also got a large pot of stew boiling to supplement the fresh meat. While they were extremely appreciative of the dungeon, they knew they had to get going eventually.

  But till then they decided to be merry and enjoy this little bit of safety they had finally gotten. Armand was half tempted to join them, but considering their recent experience with greenskins, they would most likely not welcome him.

  No, for now it would be better for him to remain hidden and just wait patiently for the next round of visitors to arrive. Hopefully it would be sooner rather than later.

  The following days all five worked together to prepare travel rations and repair their damaged clothes. They even collected a few more hides, which they made into makeshift coats to help withstand the rough conditions of the forest of death.

  Before they and the goblin knew it, they were ready to go. Trondo traded some more books in exchange for certain texts on magic and forging, while Gloria traded for some recipes. It was so innocent that Armand just ended up gifting her a book of halfling recipes.

  It had appeared after their arrival so he assumed that it was her mother’s. The gang was regularly checking outside the dungeon door, presumably for the arrival of day. Eventually after checking, Glenn nodded to the rest of the group.

  They slung the packs over their shoulders and pulled the fur coats tight around their bodies. They all pushed their way out of the dungeon and Armand was left alone in the dungeon again—well, almost alone. As he could hear Uriel and Thoth fighting over something trivial in the background.

  He knew the best way to halt their conflict as he went towards the kitchen.