Major Alexander Manukov eyed the fortress they were approaching, Both lieutenant Vasili Novosiltsev and Captain Valentina Kosmodemyanskaya were filming it. Nadia was lounging on her horse and gossiping with the wives contingent. Their current escort sent a galloper to the fort to announce their arrival and facilitate their transit of the world gate.

One thing had been made abundantly clear. World gates were seen as valuable resources and potential invasion routes. Most of their owners heavily fortified them and charged a fairly modest fee for their use. Something that was also happening back on Earth as they were found though the fortifications would appear terribly flimsy to these people.

The fortress commander was unwilling to allow so many armed elves into his castle at one time. Alexander co-opted Nadia and they entered the castle to arrange for the passage of his forces. The commander agreed to allow the Russians to pass through in batches of ten to twelve.

Patsy was still tagging along, she was learning Russian and had made friends. She had by now decided to stick with these powerful elves who had no time for the Empire of Light.

Once on the Polovtsi side of the world gate and having exited the border castle the Russians and Patsy congregated on a wide grassy plain. A gravel packed road led from the castle to a sprawling flimsy looking trade town of which more than half the structures were temporary, mostly tents and yurts.

Major Manukov and Nadia rejoined his command with the last group to transit the border castle.

They rode west at their accustomed fast pace for an hour before Alexander called a halt near a small stream and set out an early camp so that he and Nadia could update everyone on what they had learned about Polovtsi.

So, Polovtsi was a world of large rolling plains, scattered shallow seas and lakes bordered to the north and south by deep icy polar oceans. The lakes and seas, none larger than the black sea, dense forests were the rule. The plains were ruled by nomads; the most numerous and powerful of which were the centaurs. There were bands of other races roaming the steppes, riding a wide variety of beasts.

Tsarina Anastasia Alexandrovna Romanov was well known by reputation as a fell sorceress who ruled a forest kingdom several hundred leagues to the west. What exactly a league consisted of, none of them had been able to figure out.

So on the morrow they would head west and when they came across the local nomads they would try to figure out more. The border castle’s commander had had one further piece of advice. Don’t give the Centaurs liquor, they were addicted to the stuff and became aggressive and overly amorous when drunk.

* * *

Mandy Carvalho looked into the room where the volunteers were waiting to be briefed. To her disgust they were predominantly young looking attractive women.

“That’s a bit raw don’t you think chief? The kid’s a gem, a stone, you can’t count on teenage hormones getting the better of his good sense. Are you sure the guys selecting candidates were aware of that?”

“I have been told these agents are the most likely to catch the kid’s attention. Now get in there and start the briefing.”

Mandy Carvalho and Marcus Smith opened the briefing, they told their captive audience what they knew of dungeon Voices which wasn’t much and dungeons, somewhat more information there if equally skewed by the fact that they only knew one very unusual dungeon.

Then they displayed a small number of video interviews with a band of adventurers from Denver that had explored two dungeons on Ervenica. The remainder were with Adventurer’s Guild officials and while they had a lot of information and speculation regarding the dungeons themselves there wasn’t much on Voices.

“Then we have the problem that all the experts we consulted are fully cognisant of The System in its version two point whatever that all the other worlds we have come across are inflicted with while the Earth is currently beta testing the System v3.0b2.”

The question and answer session was – lively. The results were – unsatisfactory. Not enough was known.

Manfred had told them he could manage two maybe three portals at present, Antonio had started with three and grown both in size and number of portals. So the kid was probably telling the truth and they would have to let him grow and become more powerful. And that conclusion just piled more pressure on the would be Voices.

Of course what they really needed to influence a dungeon was the dungeon’s companion but they didn’t know that.

* * *

Ryan found a couple of his SCA friends to stay with Manfred and Moonbright, they joined in enthusiastically in trying to see how to adapt some CoC scenarios for Manfred’s first dungeon. The principal failing they all had was over ambition.

Then the feds arrived and started fencing off their new purchases, thankfully for Manfred they had to leave the main road open so his friends still had access to the outside world.

When informed that candidates for the post of Voice would soon be presented Manfred almost panicked but Moonbright was able to reassure him.

“Hey Manfred, honestly a Voice is what you make of them, your gramps likes and trusts his so they have a near companion like link. Voices got called that because they speak for the dungeon, and dungeons are not trusting beings. Of the few that have Voices, most control them. A very few take them over. The Voice link can be very different and until finalised, usually after the dungeon levels up while it is in existence can be entirely one way though I don’t recommend that to the give and take that exists between Felicia and your gramps.”

« Why don’t you recommend a one way link? »

“How can you trust any of these? Isn’t it better to allow them to think they have a say so you can sit in the back of their heads and spy on them?”

« So what kind of link do you recommend? »

“Go for a standard link. They can hear you, you can hear them but also spy on their deepest thoughts. Also you can use a variant to check on them before selecting the one you want. There are always people one can’t stand to be near.”

« Hmm. »

When the twenty-one candidates entered his domain Manfred followed Moonbright’s suggestion and rejected eighteen with a simple... « Thank you for coming but we do not fit. Please leave. »

The three remaining candidates, a gruff looking dwarf, a green haired elf and a dark haired woman looked around in surprise as most of their colleagues left.

‘Not me! Not me! Please don’t let him choose me!’

Manfred conferred with Moonbright, they came to an agreement, the dwarf was just too stubborn, not a major problem but why bother, the two women on the other hand... well the one who didn’t want the job... they probed deeper... yes they would choose her. The reasons for her reluctance would work in their favour in the future.

* * *

In São Paulo, Brazil, the large world gate that had opened not far from the Catedral da Sé was seeing a lot of traffic. No one knew what world it had opened too, but the two suns and paired blue world in the sky underlined that it was not the Earth. The Jesuits had been amongst the first through to the new world and were busy setting up missions and converting the natives.

In the deepest jungles of the Democratic Republic of the Congo the scouts of the Queendom of Feerazoram were fortifying and probing through the new world gate that had opened near one of their outlying Warrens. Their workers and scouts found the new world pleasantly cool.

In the Sudan, at the town of Abu Hamed several feathered beings emerged from a small world gate and on trying to convert the locals were killed and spawned a counter invasion.

* * *

The slaughter had almost immediate consequences in Foraville, several powerful people immediately began maneuvering to replace the deceased Senator Faalx Smoothtongue as one of the two Directors of the Empire of Light.

Deep in the slums of Foraville Old mother Tibs summoned Weasel – one of her longest serving minions – to her presence. Weasel eyed the two burly toughs that were already with her with apprehension.

“Weasel, ya know da Senator Goorban dontcha?”

“Yes ma,” Weasel replied uneasily.

“Den tak these two bullies an point im out ta dem.”

Weasel nodded jerkily and left the presence tailed by the two men. Two hours later Weasel watched politics Empire style in action as the two toughs terminated Senator Grooban’s political aspirations with a swiftly wielded knife.