Dear Diary,

As I suspected, the hobgoblin came down again today. I mean, I didn’t suspect he’d come today, just that he’d come.

His name is Staab. With two A’s. He was very specific about that.

He said that he was bored with sitting in the same spot waiting to die repeatedly, and wanted to explore. He was hoping we’d stop freaking out about him passing through if he could just get us to listen. Which… we apologized for freaking out.

Apparently going back up through levels is impossible for everyone, including players. The only way to go back is to die, at which point it’ll respawn you back at a predetermined location. But going down is possible for everyone.

We put a pause on our marble races and went to the big ornate doors heading down. All I’d known before today was that it led to a stairway. Now I know that it has an invisible barrier five feet high that stops anyone except players from crossing. Fortunately for us, the doors arch up, cathedral-style, to twelve feet high. So all we had to do was climb to the top and swing through.

With claws, this was a piece of cake. Kimi is going to provide a ladder for next time.

Anyways, the stairs are just stone with stone walls, and it’s like a fifteen minute walk down to the next level.

And holy crap. It’s amazing. The whole floor is a forest, lit like twilight. Light enough to see, but dark enough that all the colors are muted. We didn’t get to see all of it, because there’s a pack of dire wolves there that attacked us like three minutes after we stepped through the door.

Turns out, we respawn in the middle of our bedrooms. Which is nice, because dying is painful and I needed to scream into a pillow for a couple minutes after that.

Having had my arm ripped off by a wolf doesn’t seem to have left a mark. My arm is back, with no scars or anything. I gained a point in pain resistance, so that’s nice, I guess. Next time it won’t be as painful?

And yeah, there will be a next time. Aya really wants to go, and since she’s more or less the driving force here, we do what she says. She isn’t really the leader, because we all do our own thing and don’t need a leader, but sometimes she gets this look on her face and we know that whatever she says next, we’ll be doing. It’s… it’s one of the reasons I really like this group.

Anyways, Aya said we need to try to make friends with the wolves. Staab says it won’t work, but I think it might. So I spent the rest of the day making fist-sized spiceless meatballs, and tomorrow morning we’ll go down and try feeding the doggos. I gotta say, if we managed to make friends with them, that would be epic. I don’t think they can talk, since they’re just wolves, but we’ll find out. Lilly was the last one to die, and she says there were six of them. So that’s cool.

Anyways, I’m tired from cooking all day, and have a big day tomorrow.

Goodnight, dungeon!