Yvonne sighs and hangs her head a bit under the shade of the tree that her and her friends meet under to discuss what happened. “I probably shouldn’t be surprised I’m out of the guild…”

“Well… only technically,” speaks up Ragnar, to the confusion of my latest Resident. Aelara continues.

“You see, while you have technically fallen in duty to the guild in the completion of a major quest, there’s technically nothing keeping you from rejoining.”

Yvonne looks confused. “What? Undead aren’t barred from joining?”

Ragnar grins. “Not technically! Y’see, th’ normal r’quirements keep undead out anyway. No zombie c’n sign a contract, fer example. But nothin’ in the charter nor in any o’ th’ bylaws specific’ly excludes smart undead!”

“So… I could come back? But…” Yvonne looks a bit rudderless, and her friends continue to try to help walk her though what’s going on.

“The Guildmaster is fully aware of your unique situation and new obligations, and he asked us to remind you that, even as an Adventurer Guild member, you’re technically not obliged to take on any quests you don’t wish to. If you feel a quest is too far away, or at cross-purposes to the dungeon, simply don’t accept them.” Aelara gives her friend a gentle smile.

“And while you would need to find a party to join, it just so happens the Guild has a party that is tragically shy of a member after their latest quest. You would technically be back on the bottom rung of placement, but the Guildmaster has set a new quest to return the property that was tragically lost in the conquest of Neverrest.”

Ragnar grins again. “Guildmaster dinnae miss a trick, aye? If ya rejoin an’ just come back wi’ th’ fancy gear ya borrowed, he said ye’ll basically be back to where ya were in guild standin’, an’ have a big payment for completin’ th’ quest!”

Yvonne, for her part, still looks lost. Teemo wriggles out of a crack in the ground nearby, and she looks to him. “What should I do? Can I truly be an adventurer and a Resident?” Teemo looks at her for a few seconds before giving a squeak and continuing on his way. Those shortcuts don’t make themselves.

She turns her gaze back to her friends. “And can I even leave, even if I do accept the offer?”

Aelara nods. “While nobody seems to be absolutely sure, it seems highly likely you’ll be able to leave for at least some period of time. Neverrest could send its undead denizens out beyond its borders. Additionally, Miss Aranya is also able to ‘sojourn’, as she puts it. If undead can leave, and Residents can leave, undead Residents should be able to leave,” reasons the elf.

Ragnar looks around, watching Teemo vanish down the start of another shortcut. “An’ it seems t’ me yer dungeon isnae opposed t’ ye rejoining, too.”

Yvonne slowly nods. “Aranya did say it seems to want us to do more than just be here.” Her resolve seems to slowly firm, and she stands with a nod. “Yes. I would like to rejoin the guild, then.”

Her friends smile and all three grasp hands. They’re been through much together, and they all intend to get through much more in the same way.

I can only half pay attention to the warm reunion of the party right now, though. After Fluffles took those books to the secret base, I lost track of him. He’s not out on an expedition or something, either. I scour my various places, and get a bit of an appreciation for just how much I’ve grown since I got here.

Used to be, it’d take me just a few moments to scan myself and bring the little vague feelings of what’s happening to the forefront of my mind. But now I have the house, the garden, the maze, the tunnels, the cemetery, and the crypt complex.

He’s not in the complex, that’s the first place I checked. I thought maybe he came back to look at the workshop or look at other books. But no, Thing is still all on its own in the enchanting workshop. Looks like it's getting ready to head to the secret base to look over the enchanting books and get an actual idea of how to enchant things.

He’s not up in the cemetery, either. The whole graveyard is pretty quiet and peaceful now, with Grim’s mowing being the only real movement up there. I wonder if the local churches will want to come consecrate the place or something. I don’t even know if that’s a thing.

He’s not down in the tunnels. Jello is doing Jello things, eating gremlins and other invaders. I kinda get the feeling she misses eating the undead, but seems to be going for quantity of other stuff, rather than the quality of roaming corpses. The ratlings are also helping mine out various new tunnels and caverns, too. They’re still not especially good at it, but more room means more room for encounters. I’ll probably sit down soon and try to design an actual tunnel complex beneath the house soon. I’ll also probably need Coda to help. Sonar will help to plan and make sure the ratlings mine where and what they need to.

It’s strange, but I feel like most of what I mine of the walls almost vanishes, while the nodes seem to never lessen. Must be some part of the weirdness of this reality. Either way, I’ll probably need to designate a few more mining nodes if I want to fancy the place up.

Anyhow, back on the hunt for Fluffles. He’s also not in the house. Business has been slowly picking back up, seems like most delvers are content to wait for the official all-clear from the office of dungeon affairs and elf guy. I wonder when he’ll get back. It’s been a while since he took a look around.

He’s not in the maze, either. That’s still just Tiny and the dire rat thieves. Tiny seems to be planning out a new layout for the maze, placing webs and such and almost sectioning parts off. Looks like he’s got an area up to the first chest that’s a fairly straight shot, probably for the people that try to just sprint through. The deepest chest, though, is starting to get pretty good. It’s no longer a least nor even a lesser chest. Big guy knows how to try to lure stronger adventurers deeper.

Fluffles isn’t even in the yard, and that’s the last area to look! The herbalism nodes are getting a bit overgrown, thanks to the lull in delvers while dealing with Neverrest. But now they’re getting pruned back by the more daring herbalists. The ant hill is still spitting out ants. It started occasionally producing carpenter majors that are the size of mice, and Queen has been taking a few to help move her larger experiments around, while the rest are helping spread the various fungi around in the tunnels. I don’t know how, but there’s some new types popping up in a few nooks down there.

Fluffles isn’t even in the snake spawner! Oh… wait. He is. Why is he in there? “Ascending”? What?