Twenty five days ago, in the city of Campanella, on the western shore of La Gran Mar Interior, some 386 leagues southwest from the town of Soria.

A pigeon flew over the city walls, a note attached to its right leg, it flew on past the guard house and towards the city center, but stopped short, at one of the larger, but not the largest buildings in the city. As the pigeon settled down in the coop to rest after its extended flight, the coop handler came up and carefully retrieved the note in its case, noting the color of the wax, the young elvish handler stopped short, and didn’t place the note in the basket to be taken down to be read later, and ran down the stairs herself, heading straight for the guild masters office. Somewhat out of breath, she stopped short at the secretaries desk, breathlessly saying, “Urgent message via pigeon for the Guild Master.” The elderly human secretary, looked up from his work, adjusted his spectacles, noting the color of the wax on the note in her hand, stood up himself, and knocked heavily on the guild masters door, “Guild Master, urgent note via pigeon.” He then opened the door, and waved the coop handler in to see the guild master.

I looked up from my stained teak desk, at the coop handler, noting the color of the wax, like Sven had done, and sighed, reaching my hand out across the desk and said to her, “Best give that over quick Miranda.” She gulped, thrusting the note into my outstretched hand and started backing away, I waved my hand in a shooing motion and said, “take care of yourself a bit more girl.” Miranda, may be my great-grand-niece, but for some reason, I can hardly fathom, she is still intimidated by me. Time to see what this note has to say.

It was from Ramirez, I hadn’t seen that reprobate in more than a century, an unusual possible dungeon emergence, near La Cima, two sent to locate and to type the dungeon. I can see why Ramirez wrote after all this time. I put the note down on my desk, and called to Sven, who it seems anticipated me and was awaiting my call in the doorway, “Sven, I need, two sorcerers, three path-finders, two wizards, four archers, two spearmen, four swordsmen, a pair of gnomish sappers, and if we can find a beast-kin shaman, them too. On the double, we need a group to asses a newly emerged dungeon.” Sven replied with almost unusual sincerity, “Yes, Guild Master Franco, right away.” He then turned and rushed down to towards the main lobby, hopefully we had the personnel immediately available. It was unfortunate that we didn’t have any dwarvish elementalists, or golem pilots in residence, as that would have been even better than having the sappers or the shaman on this sort of mission, at least if this was a combative dungeon type, still, we would have to make do.

It took Sven, almost an hour to gather the group, he had taken them to the briefing room down the hall. It had been almost a year since we last used it, when we had sent reinforcements to help deal with the overflow incident at Troinetsk. We were still dealing with the vestiges of that incident, hopefully, this new dungeon won’t be as troublesome. I entered the briefing room, my pace still strong despite my six hundred and fifty years.

I stepped up to the lectern, flattening the note, whilst clearing my throat and looking at the motley group of gathered delvers. “People, we may have an unusual dungeon emergence, near La Cima.” The group had a quick intake of breath, followed by a short groan, they then kindly let me continue with my briefing. I continued, “Yes, it is quite a distance away, some 386 leagues to the nearest town of Soria, and a further 65 or so leagues from there according to the rough calculations of the Sorcerous Artificer, Ramirez. We do not know what type of dungeon this unusual emergence may be, most dungeons erupt strongly onto the surface, and the reverberations in the mana field can be easily felt for almost two thousand leagues, as you all may, or may not know, the last dungeon emergence was the Orcish Blood Shaman Dungeon, a hundred and fifty years ago on the north eastern edge of the continent.” I paused, and tapped the note with my forefinger, then continued, “Ramirez, indicated this emergence was subtle, barely detectable, like it was trying to hide its presence, this is unlikely to be good news for us.”

I started to pace behind the lectern, subconsciously going into teaching mode, and expounded for the benefit of the group, “Some 65 years ago, the City-State of Spartos on the southern continent, circulated an alert to every guild house it could reach, warning that the human warlock Thestor had escaped from captivity prior to his execution, along with his disciple. This new dungeon could very well be his, or that of yet another orcish blood shaman, the fact of the matter is, we do not know.” I stopped back at the lectern, having realized I accidentally was lecturing again, I coughed, mildly in embarrassment, and continued, “Ramirez, sent two trusted scouts to locate, and type the dungeon, so that by the time you all arrive in Soria, by way of Tudela, he may have more recent pertinent information for you all. If the dungeon is that of Thestor, or abyssal, I don’t need to tell you all what to do. If it is another blood dungeon, or is otherwise hostile, it needs a full evaluation, and contact with the dungeon summons, if feasible.”

One of the archers raised her hands and inquired, “What if it isn’t hostile, sir ?” I replied, somewhat nonplussed, “Well, you all will still need to perform a full evaluation and get into contact with the summons, it is merely significantly less likely in that case, that most or all of you will require significant healing after the evaluation is complete.” She nodded her head, and said, “Understood sir, Thank you.” I looked over the group once more, and decided to wrap things up, “You all are to leave by noon tomorrow, Sven,” I indicated his presence by the door, “will take care of funding and assist you all with supplies, as I mentioned in passing previously, you are to travel overland by way of Tudela, to meet up with Ramirez and the town mayor, Alfonso. They will give you a more precise location for this dungeon, and perhaps even the type, if the scouts have returned by the time you all have arrived. Dismissed, safe travels, May Hestia and Artemis watch over you all.”

Ten minutes ago, just before noon, at the south western edge of the clearing in front of James’s Dungeon about a hundred paces from the entrance.

I turned to Timoteo, and whispered harshly to him, “I think this is it,” and waved my hand to the western edge of the clearing, where an obviously non-natural cave appeared in the cliff-side. Timoteo, stepped up besides me, and looked over where I had indicated, then turned to me, saying, “Well, if that isn’t a dungeon, it is the strangest dwelling I have ever seen. What do you think Dimitri, Dwarvish construction?” I shook my head and replied, “I wouldn’t think so, the dwarves I knew back in Troinetsk, appreciated natural stone, even it was worked, I can’t even tell if the sides of the cave are stone, or something else entirely. Besides, Timoteo, the entire roof is lit up with light, and I don’t see a torch, or a set of mirrors anywhere.” I adjusted the weight of my pack on my shoulders, and crossed the clearing towards the entrance, Timoteo keeping pace with me.

We stood a little off center to the entrance of the cavern and looked it over. The pristine, yet bare walls of the entry way, completely threw off my senses, even the dwarves wouldn’t be able to work the walls or floor as one contiguous piece, which is what this appeared to me to be. The soft light of the ceiling, was throwing my expectations of dungeons completely off, as I was about to ask Timoteo about the lights, he turned to me, and asked, “Sylph construction maybe? As far as I can tell the walls and floor are one piece, can you tell if there are seams anywhere ?”

I shook my head as I responded back, “Don’t the Sylph use crystals for lighting? if the roof is one seamless crystal, then that is one enormous crystal, and it should be radiating enough power to cook the both of us, I am not even mildly warm, are you?” Timoteo, grumbled in response, saying, “well, it is officially a mystery then, I hate mysteries.” He turned his head a bit towards the southern side of the cave, and flinched, which in turn caused me to flinch and turn in the same direction.

There was a closed door in the side of the entryway wall, with an obvious door handle. The door handle had a design unlike anything I had ever seen, it wasn’t fancy and covered in filagree, and although you could see the relation to a normal tavern door handle, there was nothing even remotely like hammer marks on the handle, nor any seams that would indicate casting. The door itself, if it wasn’t for the handle, and the only slightly visible seams round the edges of the nine cubit high by four cubit wide door, would have been completely invisible to our unaided eyes. The precision of the door was equally as frightening as the entryway, as it implied a level of capability well beyond, what I knew of master level dwarvish craftsmanship. Timoteo, half turned towards me and asked, “do you sense the dungeons influence over the door, and the wall immediately surrounding it ?” Taking a moment to feel my surroundings, I was surprised not to feel anything that caused my hackles to raise from the door, or the six cubits worth of space since we stepped over the obvious threshold of the dungeon, responding to his question, I stated, “no, nor anything from the immediate area by the entrance itself, just a vague feeling of unease of the unknown. How do you want to handle this door, me first, and you back me up with your bow?” Timoteo responded, somewhat more brusquely than usual, “works for me, kind of wish you had a shield.” I half shrugged, and carefully pushed down on the silvery cylinder of a door handle, pushing in as I did so.

The door swung open on silent hinges, revealing what at first glance appeared to be a bunk room of some kind. The ceiling, like the entryway’s was also solidly lit, from edge to edge, the beds were stacked two high, with a set of stairs at what I suspected was the foot of each bed. The bunk room appeared to be ten cubits high, and about twenty five cubits wide, just past the doorway, which seemed to be about six cubits wide. As we stayed in the doorway, inspecting the room, there was suddenly a slight whirring sound, and the door started to close by itself. Timoteo, may have kidded me about my reaction later, but, I nearly jumped out of my boots, and swung my axe through the empty space of the doorway. The innocent door which caused my overreaction, paused, and then reopened fully, whirring quietly as it did.

Timoteo, had flinched as I had swung my axe through the doorway, but after a moment, chuckled, and patted my shoulder, whilst saying, “come on, it seems this dungeon prepared for visitors, although a few more than just we two.” As we stepped into the bunk room, the door as it had before, started to close by itself, once we had passed the threshold. I was relieved to see a matching door handle on the inside, being forced to barricade the door open would not have been ideal. In addition to the door handle on the inside of the door, above the handle was a knob pointing towards the hinges, with what appeared to be a green indicator. When the door finished closing, I reached towards the knob, and tried turning it down, to no avail, however, turning it up and around towards the side without hinges, caused a slight thunk sound, and the indicator below the knob turned from green to red. A quick check of the door handle, showed that the door was now locked, a twist of the knob back the other way, and the door opened when I tried the handle again.

Five days ago, just after dusk, at the town of Iltasadum, 193 leagues to the north-east of the entrance to James’s Dungeon.

The imp which had possessed Ninazu, managed to time his return to town, just about perfectly. Arriving past sundown, a candle-mark past supper, yet early enough that he had several candle-marks available to prepare to summon others of his kind, lacking the additional power required to summon a greater member of the abyssal horde. After the torches were mostly extinguished for the night, shortly after midnight, the imp and his pair of new compatriots, entered the tent of Ninazu’s parents, Atab, and his mother, Kishar. The new imps covered the mouths of their victims, whose eyes snapped open in pain and confusion at the interruption of their sleep, then possessed them in short order. The Abyssal invasion of the orcish tundra had just begun.

Now, in the bunk room of James’s dungeon.

I looked over Dimitri’s shoulder as he figured out the door, it seemed we would not need a key to lock the door to this place, that and the lock was fairly simple to figure out. The workmanship of this place was astonishing, I may not have been scrutinizing every detail as Dimitri was, but I could plainly see, it was well beyond, what either of us had thought within the realms of possibility. My first impression of this dungeon, over the last few minutes, whatever its origins, was completely different from my experience with the Jungle Botanist Dungeon. It seemed non-violent, at least for the moment, the dungeons consciousness didn’t hang around visitors, oppressing them with its mere presence, nor did the summons appear and interrogate us. It was odd, that the summons didn’t appear, every dungeon had at least one sapient summons to keep it company, and help maintain the dungeons sanity with their mere presence, that was the common sense at least. I did get the sense that the dungeon was watching, but I had absolutely no idea how, not when the dungeons presence had been completely removed from the bunk room that Dimitri and I found ourselves in.

I wandered over to the nearest bunk along the interior wall, it definitely wasn’t what I was used to, it seemed to be made of the same material that the walls and floor were made of. However, when I pressed down on the mattress there was some give, not as much as I generally like, but certainly a lot more than something that could be used to make walls, I would have thought. There was a pillow atop the mattress, I tried to pick it up, but it seemed as though it was attached to the mattress. I noticed a pair of knobs on the wall just about a span above the pillow, each the two had a pair of symbols at the top and bottom of the panel it was nestled in. The outermost knob had one of which looked like a plain circle, the other a stylized sun, the circle was currently glowing a soft yellow, whilst the sun symbol was dark. A short upward press on that knob, and the circle went dark, and the sun symbol glowed dimly, as did the underside of the bunk above the one I was inspecting.

The other knob’s symbols didn’t seem quite so straightforward to understand, one appeared to be a stylized cloud, the other a flattened oval, as an additional difference to the knob that controlled the lights, both symbols glowed dimly and the knob itself was positioned about ¾’s of the way to the flattened oval. Matching what I had tried with the light knob, I pressed the knob further towards the flattened oval. I heard a sharp hiss coming from the bunk, startling me, and Dimitri almost shouted out, “What did you do?” I freely admit I was feeling somewhat pedantic, and responded, “I pressed this knob.” The hissing sound had finished almost as soon as it had started, and I was wondering what if anything had happened. Dimitri, having heard my reply, shook his head, and returned grumbling over to the matching bunk along the outer wall where he was setting up his bedroll. I leaned on the mattress looking at the knob again, and noticed that the mattress was more firm than it had been. I turned my head towards Dimitri and called out to him, “Dimitri, that knob with the cloud and oval symbols adjusts the firmness of the mattress and pillow.” Dimitri responded back with a somewhat gruff, “Thanks.”

I shook my head, and adjusted the mattress to the firmness I preferred, the slight hiss, not bothering me nearly as much, now that I knew what was going on. I started to lay my bedroll out, when Dimitri called over to me, “There is a pair of drawers under the lower bunk.” I called back a simple, “Thanks” in response to this new information. I had noticed the handles, but had not investigated them prior to Dimitri calling out to me. After I had finished laying out my bedroll, I placed the rest of my pack in that cubit high drawer, then stood, stretching somewhat, as I started to look around the rest of this bunk-room.

After the five rows of beds, there was a dining area with a pair of ten cubit long and three cubit wide tables with ten chairs apiece around them. There didn’t seem to be anything special about the tables or the chairs, except that they were made of the same indeterminate material as the walls and floors, immediately before the dining area there was a door on the eastern side of the bunk-room, styled in much the same way as the door to the bunk room itself. I thought about entering, but decided to take a look at what I presumed was the kitchen, which was just past the dining area, and took up the entire back wall of the bunk-room.

There was a countertop equal in size, though a cubit higher, set perpendicular to the tables in the dining area, four bar type stools, solidly attached to the floor on the same side as the dining tables. Walking around the countertop, on the eastern wall, there was yet another door, next to that door was a very large deep sink, with strange faucet, and what appeared to be a stylized handle for the faucet instead of the knobs that I had seen on my parents kitchen sink growing up in Campanella. Above the sink were a set of four fairly large meat hooks, set about six and a half cubits from the floor, to the right of the sink there was what appeared to be a set of knives for meat preparation, even a small tenderizing hammer, and a cutting area with a perfectly even grid to guide the cuts. The grooves all angled downward to the sink, and there were small ledges running around the edge of the cutting area, to make it less likely that any bits of food were to fall to the floor, I assume. Next to the cutting area were a set of three ovens, each about the size of a bakers oven I had seen back in Campanella, a cubit high and four cubits wide. There was nothing that I could see that showed where the firewood or coal went in to heat the ovens, just another set of knobs per oven, most strange.

Dimitri joined me as I walked past the large ovens, to what looked like a stove top, sort of, maybe. The surface was perfectly flat, no indication of where flames might come out, nor where any fuel might go, just four white circles in what was an otherwise plain gray surface, one larger circle near the back of the stove area, another near the front. Set in the wall was what I surmised was a timepiece of some kind, judging by how regularly the smaller symbols changed. I waved my hand at the stovetop with it’s timepiece and asked Dimitri, “Any ideas?” He responded, “None, not really, just that the wizard of this dungeon must really love knobs, it appears as though almost everything in here has a knob associated with it, looks like the knobs here on the front of the stove control each circle individually, see the four dots above each knob, only one has a solid indicator, then there is the expanding arc above each knob. Ingenious, if it works. I have never seen a timepiece like that though.” I grunted in agreement regarding the knobs, definitely a lot of them in this place. Almost involuntarily, I commented quietly, “never seen such a timepiece,” then realizing I had spoken, asked, ”are those symbols numbers? Do you have any spare parchment?” Dimitri, responded, somewhat distractedly, “probably, and yes, one moment.”

It took Dimitri and myself about a quarter candle mark to determine that the numeric symbols on the timepiece were even more odd than we had first anticipated. Sylph count their tally’s by sixes or twelves, the bulk of the civilized races, count their tally’s by fives and tens, the Kobold’s use fours and eights, I don’t think the Goblins can count much past three. Come to think of it Dragons generally do tally’s by fives and tens as well, odd, but certainly not as odd as this timepiece. The timepiece used five twelves before changing the second set of numbers, but the first set was much like the rest of the civilized races in that it used a set of ten, although there was what seemed to be an additional number that we didn’t use, in fact I don’t think that anyone had a symbol for this idea at all, the symbol seemed to be 0, from what we could tell, after arguing between ourselves for a few moments, it appeared to represent, the idea of nothing, an empty basket as it were, maybe the dragons could make sense of it, maybe not, it was certainly beyond the two of us.

The two of us kept staring at the timepiece, marveling at how regularly the symbols changed, for three changes of the first of the middle set of digits, before I realized, that I hadn’t even looked at what was to the right of the stovetop. Fortunately for my sanity, not too terribly much, another countertop, and a smaller sink, only two cubits wide and a bit more than a half cubit deep, with the same faucet as the other larger sink. This time instead of a set of knives in holders on the wall, the wall above the countertop had a set of large serving spoons, a couple sets of tongs, and several different shapes of spatulas. Further to the right was a nearly empty spice rack, of the almost fifty different clear containers along the multi-level rack, only one was full. I walked over to rack, and opened the lid, confirming my suspicion, it was salt, very fine-grained salt at that. I looked over my shoulder at Dimitri, and almost cheerfully announced, “We have salt to season dinner with.” Dimitri to my surprise, exclaimed, “great news, I haven’t had even a sprinkle in months.” Salt is somewhat hard to get in Soria, a trader usually brings a delivery once a year. In general, I ration my purchase of it out, tonight, we wont have to.

Immediately to the right of the spice rack and before the shelves that lined the outer wall up until the dividing countertop, was an enclosed cupboard. The door was unusual in that it was quite thick, with a fairly tall handle. A light pull of the handle didn’t open the door, a harder one, had the door open, and to my surprise a light came on almost instantly, and then I noticed the lit cupboard was quite cold, but not to the point of freezing. I am not sure I can take too many more surprises, my head is starting to hurt.

Dimitri discovered a normal set of cupboards set underneath the dividing countertop, and also noticed the additional stove beneath the stovetop, that we had missed in our fascination with the timepiece. In those cupboards he found a very nice set of what appeared to be cast iron cookware, like everything else we had seen, not even a single tool mark to be found. In addition to the cupboards, there were four, wide but shallow drawers, in one of them Dimitri found twenty three-piece sets of silverware, although, from the looks of them, it is highly unlikely they are made of silver, a few slightly smaller sets of serving spoons, and in one of the other cupboards, a full set of twenty plates and ten large serving platters and bowls. Obviously the dungeon had stocked up for visitors.