Telar smiles as she places the final seal upon the scroll.

Neverrest Boneyard

Subsumed

“Couldn’t have happened to a better dungeon,” she says, glad to have that pain in the neck finally dealt with. Fourdock will certainly be doing something weird again soon, but she’ll drink her inkwell if it’s anything even remotely as dangerous as Neverrest would have done.

She gets a second scroll and magically copies the contents. The main guild will want to have the full account for the records. She almost does the same for the Fourdock dungeon, but refrains for now. It will be best to wait to update the rest of the guild on that once the Inspector can get a good look around. The details as she has them now are vague and sparse at best, and the Guild was formed to combat that kind of poor understanding of dungeons in the first place.

No, that wouldn’t do at all. So she simply places the copied scroll aside, and the other two scrolls back on the shelf; one in the section for former dungeons, and the other on the section for active ones, right next to the other two.

Meanwhile

Karn the Slight smiles as he takes a step back, appreciating the latest trophy for his guild house. Sure, it’s just a scroll with a seal at the moment, but the Dungeoneer’s Guild should be making a proper trophy plaque for the destruction of Neverrest. As with all things with large organizations, it will take a while, but even the placeholder scroll deserves a place of pride among his guild’s achievements.

There is, of course, the trophy case of ribbons and true trophies from the various Adventurer tournaments. His own party even came in second place in the Iron Barony Reliquary Hunt! But that was a while ago. But the latest accolade is one of the rarest ones as well. It’s not often a dungeon even earns the ire of the Dungeoneers so much that it needs to be destroyed, and rarer still that it’s actually accomplished. Most of the time, cores are smashed and the offending dungeon is weakened, rather than outright removed.

But that small party, and that new dungeon proved up to the task of actually subsuming Neverrest! Karn knows a lot of people will assume it was mostly the party’s doing, but a lot of people know practically nothing of dungeons. He knows it was Fourdock that was able to destroy Neverrest, not the party. Still, they hardly did nothing.

The report he got from Ragnar and Aelara was concerning, then tragic, then confusing. Yvonne, not only a Resident now, but undead as well? Intelligent still, too, which for most people is only something theoretical or nightmarish, depending on how the theory goes. He had sent the two to go turn in the quest at the Dungeoneers while he pored over Guild bylaws, as well as kingdom laws.

Guild law doesn’t actually mention undead anywhere, probably because there’s never been an undead that could meet the other requirements for membership. Kingdom laws do mention the undead, but there’s also a lot of wiggle room there. While a perpetrator being undead will impose harsher penalties for most crimes, it seems nobody ever actually put quill to parchment to outlaw actually being undead.

That discovery put a smile of Karn’s face. While he sometimes misses going out on quests, it’s things like this that remind him why he’s here. Sneaking around and slipping daggers into what needs them may solve immediate problems, but sneaking through legal codes and finding loopholes is more satisfying and lucrative. It’s a small wonder that so many rogues retire and go into law. The skillsets overlap so nicely.

Elsewhere

“I hate inspecting the Southwood…” grumbles Tarl as he moves through the forest. It’s not that the Southwood is a dangerous dungeon. Far from it, in fact. It’s practically the poster child for toyboxes! Well, if it weren’t for how bloody large the place is!

Where a dungeon like Fourdock can be inspected in an hour or two, Southwood takes close to a week! And everything is so spread out! The elf sighs and shakes his head as he continues, trying to keep his focus. The White Stag’s clearing shouldn’t be too far from here, and the core is never far from it.

He focuses his mind by speaking to his voicecatcher. Closer to a guildhouse, he’d be able to magically transmit a copy directly to someone like Telar. In the outskirts of the Green Sea, though, he’ll have to actually make it back to be able to give his report.

“Southwood remains mostly unchanged since last inspection. Various nodes appear to have moved, which is typical for its behavior. What few denizens there are appear to still be focussed on growing and nurturing the various herbalism and hunting nodes. White Stag’s clearing appears to still have antler markings on the trees from the Stag.”

The forest starts to thin, and he can make out the form of the Southwood’s only known Scion. “Spotted the Stag. Expect to need to barter information to be able to check on the core, as usual.”

He gets closer, and the large stag peers down on him with those solid blue, softly-glowing eyes.

“Outsider. You come to gain information, and know you must offer information in trade. Speak.”

Tarl manages to not roll his eyes at the great Scion and Voice of the Southwood. If he manages to upset it, he’d have a far worse fight on his hands than with that big spider back in Fourdock. For all the Stag’s apparent majesty and grace, it basically only wants gossip on other dungeons. If that’s all he has to pay to be able to confirm Southwood’s core is still more or less the same, he’ll happily pay it.

“The Harbor remains unchanged. It still viciously defends its waters, but shows no interest at all in expanding them. Neverrest appears to be slowly building up again. It must be able to tell Fourdock has a new dungeon, so it will be wanting to try to consume it as it’s done the others that formed there.

“The new Fourdock dungeon has created a maze of brambles, guarded by its mightiest Scion. The price for failing the trial is not death, however. If captured, delvers are webbed and an item of value is taken, before they are removed from the bramble and eventually the dungeon.”

The Stag tilts his head at that, possibly listening to the core’s response to that. The silence continues longer than usual, and the inspector starts to wonder if something has gone wrong, before the Stag finally speaks once more.

“My Lord suspects more has happened since you last frequented Neverrest and Fourdock. The number of wasp invaders has lessened dramatically in the last day. My Lord bids you return with news of what transpired, and you will be graced with news of transpirings deeper in the Green Sea.”

The Scion shakes his head, sending a faint series of chimes from the points of light hanging from his antlers. “For now, the accord is met, and you may gaze upon my Lord’s Heart and behold there is no flaw nor blemish to be found.”

The elf nods and gives a careful bow to the White Stag as he steps aside, and enters the clearing. “Clearing entered. Core appears unchanged. Clearing appears unchanged. Quest offered and accepted to give Southwood updated information on Neverrest and possibly Fourdock dungeons. Info on the Green Sea Forest has been offered as payment. Extracting. Should return to Fourdock itself in about a week.”