3.6

Kargerran

A mist of clouds danced around the head of the Sages, the mountain range where gnomes first appeared. "Looks like rain in a few days," Ignemrot said.

"Yep," Kargerran agreed. He wasn't feeling particularly inclined to speaking this morning thanks to the particularly strong batch of dart wine served at Soft Paws the night before.

Ignemrot, the bastard, grinned. "But what a bright, beautiful day it is right now!"

Kargerran swiped his pinky claw in Ignemrot's direction and grunted.

"No need to be rude, Ger. I did warn you that Zaulks has been serving the parandrians a lot lately. Not my fault you didn't take the warning seriously." While the corporal feigned a look of affront, the sparkle in his eye and the gleam of his teeth through his barely suppressed smile belied the fun he was having at Kargerran's expense.

"And who was it that dragged me off to the tavern in the first place? Who kept buying and pouring the wine?" Kargerran fixed the corporal with a beady eyed stare.

Kargerran's Rangers scouted the path ahead while his Infantry guarded their tails, leaving his Medic the only member of his squad walking with them. Stylard, at least, understood discretion and didn't need to believe in the infallibility of his sergeant to maintain morale or discipline.

Ignemrot gave up his pretense and grinned. "Not many times a man born with only two syllables gets a proposal from one of the high clans."

"It wasn't a proposal," Kargerran protested again. "It was an interrogation."

Ignemrot openly scoffed at that and said, "Please! I could believe you if it was the Belkamis or the Nashtors, but the Pelamedes? If they wanted a report, they'd get it through our Commander."

Kargerran waved his hand, dismissing the topic. "Whatever, as the Dreamers say. When nothing comes of it, I'll be proved right. What do you have planned for the day?"

It took a bit of prodding, but in the end Kargerran was able to get the conversation turned toward Ignemrot's work.

Roberto Garcias had suggested the name Dreamers to the corporals when they ran into a difficulty deciding how to refer to the Travelers tied to the Studio of Capricious Dreams. Jason Kline had shrugged his shoulders and agreed. By the looks passed between the two men, the name was some kind of cultural reference.

As much as Kargerran liked Ignemrot, Tremshur would have been a better fit for the Dreamers' Liaison, but he kept that opinion to himself. His opinion had everything to do with his prior service with the two men, and there had been a decade or so since his delvers days had passed. Still, Tremshur had come up through the Rangers, while Ignemrot had risen from an Infantry background. The lupine's high Acuity and rare [Xenoempathy] skill meant that he was more likely to catch subtleties that Ignemrot, with a more combat focused outlook, would either fail to see or fail to understand their significance. The Dreamers endorsement of Tremshur, however, raised scales with some of the more paranoid old farts. Ignemrot wasn't a bad second choice, and was, on all claws, a better choice than Baline.

Discussion of Ignemrot's plans for the day brought them to the entrance to the Studio of Capricious Dreams, where Jason Kline awaited them outside.

Vi had already hailed the Traveler. As they came within hearing distance, Jason Kline was saying, "We have emergency plans in place, and the mana influx is being handled without allowing any changes to the level we're letting you use. Especially mana level fluctuations. Candy made the Sunny twig help her get something like a Faraday cage targeted for mana in place around each level before anything else."

"What's happening?" Ignemrot demanded, his good cheer wiped from his features.

Jason Kline said, "We opened a portal to East Karth yesterday to kick the Shashas out. Their problem with the dungeons that have had their core stones stolen got more complicated when Sha'vord attacked Rob. Lena's adamantly opposed to any of us carrying one of the auxiliary stones to the damaged dungeons now, so she's going to be opening a portal between them and us. Candy and Aaron have been assisting Lena in setting up protections for the expected mana pressure differential between the zones. Think of it like putting up dams, levies, and digging out extra reservoirs. As part of the preparations, this doorway has been moved to lead directly into the level we put aside for your use. The door between that and the rest of the Studio has been cinched down to further reduce the potential impact."

Ignemrot's scales lifted, and Kargerran felt his own concerns rise. "Why weren't we informed of this sooner?" Ignemrot asked.

Jason Kline's furry eye ridges rose in surprise. "Our actions in East Karth are not your concern. That was made quite clear to us when Lotrot declined to take custody of the Sun elves. I believe the exact words were, 'Thanks all the same, but the Sun elves are the kind of political tarball to which no one wants to lose a claw.' As for the changes that do affect Lotrot's military, I'm informing you at the first available opportunity. The situation with the Karth dungeons is time critical, and worsening with every hour delayed."

"You're sure putting yourselves out for the Sun elves," Ignemrot stated, suspicion in his tone.

Jason Kline shook his head. "Fuck the Shashas. We're more concerned about the damage that those dungeons turning into monster spawning nests could do to Ouliel's people and everyone, Sun elf or not, that gets in their way. There's a saying where we come from: the only thing evil needs to prosper is for good men to do nothing. Also, we would rather the problem stay a continent away."

Kargerran heard Stylard shifting behind him and glanced back at the Medic. Worry wore his face in the familiar pattern of a Healer with a troublesome patient. Looking back to Jason Kline, Kargerran cut Ignemrot off to ask, "What happened to Roberto Garcias?"

Jason Kline's face took on a grim cast. "He got to be the trial run for us for the healing tied to the Studio. The damage was bad enough that his body had to be rebuilt entirely, and the Studio didn't have a pattern for humans until after it was done deconstructing the damage and remaking him as an elf. I would, personally, appreciate an experienced Healer looking him over, but so far he seems to be adjusting."

A bit of finessing got Ignemrot over his indignation enough to go into the Studio and verify the changes.

*~*~*

Stylard

The higher ups took way too much time growling at each other for Stylard's nerves. He had been drawn to the Healer's path from the earliest of ages, tugged that way as much by his personality as by the spark of Healing magic with which he had been born. Military service was meant to season him, and this was his first year. He knew he was young for his rank, and he had heard over and over the cautions against caring too much about his patients. It was a problem all Healers worthy of the Red dealt with. The unrest surrounding the discovery of a Traveler-controlled dungeon only made it harder for Stylard to detach.

What helped him deal with the delay was Jason Kline's own apparent calm. The camaraderie between the two discharged Specialists was strong, and Stylard knew that if Roberto Garcias' condition were time critical his friend would not be responding to Corporal Ignemrot's gruff demands for appeasement with such patience.

When the corporal (finally!) went to see to the troops training in the dungeon, his sergeant accompanied Stylard and Jason Kline as they checked on Roberto Garcias. The rest of their unit waited in the staging area.

Stylard hadn't seen much of the area within the Studio of Capricious Dreams that had been set aside for the Lotrot military's use. What he saw now was impressive.

The entrance led into a significant staging area about 8,000 square meters in size (2 acres) and with a ceiling arcing 100 meters overhead that mimicked a cloudy day. Utilitarian buildings surrounded the staging area, and on the far side of the area stood a pair of immense doors, currently spread wide open. Stylard could see a training field beyond in use by several of the Delver Talon squads.

Jason Kline guided them toward a building to the right of the entrance. Responding to something Sergeant Kargerran had said, the Studio's Liaison gestured to the entrance they had come through. "If I understood Lena right, the biggest constraint on the entrance size is the space available on Lotrot's side. If you want to be able to drive wagons through, the cave needs to be excavated. If we do it, it'll happen with a lot of tectonic activity, which may damage the city. Lena's not keen on that, so I believe Corporal Ignemrot has already punted that up the chain of command."

"I don't understand the word you used, this tectonic? What does that mean?" Sergeant Kargerran asked.

Jason Kline tapped his nose with his index finger. "You know, I'm not sure if tectonic plates even exist in Rhofhir. Have you ever been through an earthquake?" he asked.

The sergeant's scales fluttered and he shuddered. "Only in a dungeon."

"There'll be enough shaking going on over here to rattle the windows in Lotrot. I'm not sure how strong the quake will be, but we'd rather not risk cracking any of your foundations if we don't have to."

Stylard frowned. "How could shaking over here cause foundations to crack in Lotrot?"

"Depends how bad the shaking here gets. If it gets into the threes, you will feel it for several hundred kilometers." Jason Kline held a door for them. "We're going to the left."

The sergeant entered and stepped to the side, so Stylard followed his example. Jason Kline resumed the lead.

"You have a lot of strange ways of talking. What do numbers have to do with these earthquakes?" Stylard asked.

"Apologies. California, where we lived, has a long fault line running along the coast, so earthquakes are pretty common. Fault lines are where tectonic plates meet. With earthquakes being common, people come up with ways to compare them. I think the seismologists use a logarithmic scale, one where you go up each rank by factors instead of straight addition. Something like a two on the scale is ten times stronger than a one, and a three is ten times stronger than the two and a hundred times stronger than that same one.

"The seismographs are pretty sensitive. Most people don't notice any shaking under a three on the measurement scale. We build with the idea of our buildings getting shaken, so we don't really need to sweat anything under a four, but in places where just anyone gets to slap together a shack and call it good, high twos can fracture poorly prepared foundations and threes bring down mortared brick. It also depends on the composition of the earth underneath. Solid bedrock, like granite, makes for a sharper and shorter shaking, like jittery hands, while looser soil lets huge swells form in the earth so the shaking takes longer, has time to get some height before the drop, and does more structural damage."

"That sounds more like the effects of an [Earth Like Water] spell," the sergeant said.

"Does that reach several hundred kilometers from its point of origin?" Jason Kline asked.

"It can, depending on who casts the spell," the sergeant said.

"Good to know," Jason Kline said. He led them through a few hallways, stopping at a door placed at the end of the last hall. He set his hand in the center of the door, after which a yellow light rippled over the door before it disappeared, replaced by an open archway into the Entrance Hall as Stylard had last seen it.

Jason Kline led them out of that Hall and into a minor maze of corridors and kill rooms. "The traps are all disabled right now, and the door to the private section rotates on Lena's whim."

Stylard ran through his mental checklist for patient assessment yet again while the sergeant asked about the traps and maze design. Jason Kline professed ignorance about a lot of it. "I'm not as involved in the building side of things, being focused on the preventative side."

"How so?" the sergeant asked.

"Talking out problems has a lower fatality rate than fighting them out. All life is precious to us, even our enemies. That doesn't mean we won't defend ourselves with more than words, but we have to perceive a grave and immanent threat to start any violence."

Stylard found he agreed with that idea, but he was a Medic; he had to put the flesh and blood pieces back together that managed not to die during such confrontations. He wasn't sure about the sergeant, though. Most monsters and monstrous sapients simply could not be reasoned with, nor could the xenophobia, greed, and/or ambition of many other sapient species.

The portal to what Jason Kline called the private section was indistinguishable to Stylard's gaze from any other walled section of the maze. As before, the liaison placed his hand upon it, a glow rippled outward, leaving behind the sight of a room foreign to their current location. This time, Jason Kline placed his arm through the portal, and rested his other hand on their shoulder as they passed through, one at a time.

"There are restrictions on this portal, so the contact is necessary," Jason Kline stated. He followed them through, and the portal closed behind him, leaving a decorated patch of wall in its place.

The room they entered was circular, with a variety of lounging pillows and seats made for the tail-less species. Portals lined the walls, and arch ways led to several connected rooms. One of them appeared to be the kitchen he had heard about from the Rangers left to watch over the newly discovered Travelers, while another led to the middle of a hallway. The third, where Jason Kline led them, gave access to a decadent training field.

The room looked more like an outdoor area than a room, and spanned an area larger by at least half again the staging area. A dedicated racing tract occupied some of that extra space, but so did a pair of oddly marked fields and a squared off rectangular pool. Nearer the door were some contraptions recognizable as training dummies and a weapons rack which held blunted spears, wooden swords and shields.

A dark haired elf ran around the racing tract, springing over simple barriers set in the path. He wore only an oddly shortened pair of loose leggings.

The contradiction of an elf dressed in so … little stymied Stylard's thoughts. Despite being warned, he was surprised to hear Jason Kline yell out to the elf, "Rob! Come over here!"

The elf lifted a hand, finished the set of jumps he was running through, and then cut across the center of the race tract (which had a lush growth of spring grasses) as he made his way toward them.

As the grinning elf (another oddity to Stylard) approached, his features came into focus, and the idea that this was one of the human Travelers they had first met didn't seem so impossible.

"Kargerran! Stylard! It's good to see you guys again! How are you?" Roberto Garcias said as soon as he was in easy speaking range.

*~*~*

Kargerran

The Dreamers permitted Stylard to perform a deep examination of their newly changed member, and answered all of the Medic's questions with an open demeanor.

Stylard had pronounced Roberto Garcias as fit as any elf, and they were discussing something called a Design of Cultivation when both Jason Kline and Roberto Garcias jerked upright, their gazes unfocused.

Their state didn't last long before both were rising to their feet. Jason Kline said, "Let's get you back to the Lotrot level. Lena's opened the portal to Priesley's Folly's dungeon and that's the only level currently being kept out of the emergency building procedures."

Kargerran leapt to his feet, glad to see Stylard following his example. Even as they followed their hosts, Kargerran asked, "What's the situation?"

"The influx is being rated as Severe - no, it just got upgraded to Extreme. New levels are being built according to prior plans, in addition to expansions for our personal levels to start with. Candy and Aaron have been given a temporary sub arbiter status so they can help with the creation process." Jason Kline grabbed several spears, passing them to Kargerran, Stylard, and Roberto Garcias as they moved. He and Roberto Garcias put a hand on Kargerran and Stylard's shoulder and rushed them through the portal to the Entrance Hall level.

As they jogged, Kargerran noted the odd sense of moving over something solid, but several centimeters above the ground.

"What's the danger to the troops?" Kargerran asked.

Jason Kline, his voice full of confidence, said, "Low. The level's completely encased in a mana barrier to ensure that none of the soldiers will end up with mana poisoning no matter what happens in the rest of the Studio. Candy's tested it out in her Lab under as extreme circumstances as we can reproduce and it held nicely. Turns out it's about what the Tapestry does with dungeons in general so they don't flood the rest of the world with dangerous levels of mana. Our bigger concern is that the levels left for expansion start spawning random monsters. We'll need to get them contracted as soon as possible. That's also why the portal to the Lotrot level is going to get locked to anyone not under contract to the Studio as soon as we get you two through it."

They were in sight of the tunnel leading to the Entrance Hall when the air shimmered ahead of them and an odd wolf like creature spun into existence. Kargerran couldn't identify it. The exoskeletal armor plates along its neck and flanks glowed with a dull red light while the matte black plates on its face made that part of its body harder to focus on. Thick, dark gray fur escaped from around the plates, and a ridge of spikes grew in along its spine as they watched. The armored wolf opened its mouth, revealing ivory fangs floating against the dark gray pigmentation of its lips, gums and tongue.

"[Offer Contract]!" Jason Kline said as soon as its gaze turned to their group.

The wolf nodded at them, stretched like a cat kin upon waking, and moved as far to the side of their path as it could.

Jason Kline led the way passed it with Roberto Garcias taking the rearguard position.

"What is that?" Stylard asked.

"The Tapestry calls it an Advanced Armored Shadow Wolf," Jason Kline answered.

They made it through to the Lotrot military level with no further incidents.