While Dixon sullenly paced the confines of his new prison, carefully avoiding any contact with the cold iron manacles on the floor, Puck wandered about the room to take a closer look at the items in his dungeon. As he concentrated he could both literally see them and either “see” them as a part of his overall self, or feel them the way the perfect skipping stone feels in hand before it is launched out over the water. The weight and shape of some things pressed against his consciousness while others, now that he was more aware, felt like an integral part of him, like the book he had learned the Glamour spell from. He could feel it, and the tombstone-turned-altar it rested on as though it was part of his skin. The very walls and their stones, in fact, drifted in and out of his awareness as he paid attention to different parts.

On the southern wall two heavy dwarven doors hung solidly from their hinges. The doors were metal, some kind of polished bronze, though they hadn’t suffered from any kind of verdigris over the ages. Puck wasn’t certain if that was due to the magic that had created his current state or dwarven craftsmanship. He guessed the latter, as it was doubtful soulstone magic somehow polished metal. They were carved, or had been poured into a mold with dwarven geometric patterning around the outside. The door to his right stood ajar just a foot or so, enough that a standard human could step inside without discomfort. Without thinking, he stepped through. He heard Dixon shout, “Wait!” before he did, but Puck ignored him.

Outside the doors was the long, gently sloping tunnel of a natural cavern. Stalactites hung from the ceiling while stalagmites pushed their hungry way up. Some kind of sediment in the limestone made them glitter as he weaved his way through them. From where he stood, he could see a tiny prick of light where he assumed the tunnel exited. Puck was surprised to find that he could sense the earth around him and extending out. He wasn’t sure if his dungeon form extended all the way to the end, but he was suddenly excited to find out. The spirit of the sprite moved forward as surely as if he’d been a mortal being, noting mushrooms growing here and there, and discovering the tickle of bats and insects that made the cave their home on and in the earth and stone of his walls.

Puck wondered if these counted as sentients to his absorption magic. He reached out with the part of him that “ate” things and absorbed one of the insects. A small thrill of energy filled him. It made him realize he was hungry, though he wasn’t certain how that could be without a physical body. A scroll appeared.

You have absorbed a Black Beetle. Black Beetle has been added to your list of fauna.

Puck wondered what that meant, but set it aside to ask Dixon later. As he thought it however, the scroll added information.

Black Beetle: A basic black beetle. Black beetles are a common member of the order coleoptera. Largely a scavenger that eats decaying organic matter of all types. 1 hp .01 dmg.

Hmm, Puck thought. He was still going to have to ask Dixon. The answer provided more questions than he started with. Not ready to return to the main chamber from his exploration, Puck reached out again with his magic and tried to eat one of the bats. Before it could take hold, he heard a startled shriek and slipped from the grasp of his powers. The cave filled quickly with a tornado of flapping bats headed for the exit. The magic wouldn’t reach much further from his walls when he tried to extend it. The limitation frustrated him as he watched several meals escape. He ate another beetle and felt his energy levels rise a tiny bit again. It still left him hungry, so he attempted to eat one of those mushrooms he felt growing on his floor. Its energy was a little more filling, but he could tell it would take a lot of mushrooms to satisfy him. This time the scroll read:

You have absorbed a Psilocybin Mushroom. Psilocybin Mushroom has been added to your list of flora.

And what was a psilocybin mushroom, he asked. . . himself, he guessed. The scroll appeared.

Psilocybin mushroom: A psychedelic mushroom. Causes hallucinations when ingested. This trait is equally reviled and revered by various members of various species.

A huge grin crossed Puck’s face. That could be fun. Anything that played tricks on mortal minds was good in his book. He wondered if he could convince Dixon to try one. Puck chuckled at the thought of the pretentious fairy suffering from hallucinations.

Done with his interest in absorbing things for the moment, the fae dungeon spirit wandered further toward the entrance. It was day outside and from where he stood he could see the hill below his entrance slope gently away out into a rolling meadow valley. A sparse, healthy deciduous forest covered the slope off to his left. He could see nothing else from his current vantage point, so it was time to take a step outside.

The first step was alright. The second was harder. The third was a strain. Puck pushed forward. Then the force he was pressing against snapped back. His spirit form was launched backward down the tunnel, flying backward until he ricocheted from a stalactite hanging from the ceiling and tumbling backward until he crashed into another. In spite of the lack of physical body, it HURT.

And the headache was back.