Erramir’s scowl deepened as he came out onto 12th level sidewalk. It was the uppermost point in a triangular pattern of collapse that was widest just above the canyon bottom. It was the least damaged walkway on this side of the canyon.

Unfortunately, the destroyed section was directly below the exit tunnel, leaving naught but a void gaping below the small, 13th level balcony. It was the highest point, partially built into the stone and the deck bit was cantalevered without any supports, leaving it unaffected by the demolished floors beneath. It was also the only access point for the way back to the surface.

Stopping several feet back from the jagged edge, Erramir's head craned forward unconciously. “That's... not good," he mumbled. A seed of fear nestling into his chest.

Having ascending to the 10th level via the ramps on the other side of the canyon, then crossed over at the only remaining bridge in sight. There he had caught a distant hint of what now clenched at his courage. Given that it had been only a faint glimpse, he had been holding out hope his eyes were mistaken.

Standing here, he could clearly see it was no trick. The dull violet glow was unmistakable.

The light radiated at the back of the balcony, set well into the cayon wall, exactly where the entrance had been. Now, the tunnel was gone. It wasn’t collapsed or blocked–it was just missing–where there had been a passage, there was now canyon wall.

Even so, far more than the vanished passage, the violet rune light surrounding where the opening had been was the cause of Erramir's rising anxiety. The color was eerily familiar, and his mind flashed with a memory of ephemeral tentacles snaking from the orb, and the seed of fear grew a bit larger. I don't think we're alone down here.

The gap to the balcony edge was at least thirty feet plus ten feet up. With Twitch boosted, Erramir thought he might make the jump, but it would be close. Edging forward and peering over the edge told him all he needed to know; falling was certain death. As he was now separated from his original spawn point by not just distance, but also this barrier as well as the stone slab blocking the tunnel back into the ruins of Qar'Dakar, death was not something he could risk.

His eyes were good, but the runes were too far to see clearly, and having the runecraft skill, Erramir wanted a closer look. Maybe there’s another way to get up there, he thought. With this in mind, Erramir doubled back to look for one. After twenty minutes searching all the accesible 12th level homes, he concluded there was no secret back access, at least none he could find.

Erramir made his way back to the edge. But, looking at the mysterious runes offered nothing but an uncomfortable feeling. Resigned and moderately disquieted, he turned and went back to the ramp down. They would need to find some other way out.

The trek back to Val and Carson gave him time to ruminate on their situation. He could think of a few potential explanations for the rune blocked passage–they broke into two groups: an automatic response to something they did or an intentional act by someone or something.

If automated, awakening Undavir could have been the trigger. But in that case, it probably should have reopened after their victory. His touching the pipe, the collapse, or some arbitrary point in their descent could also have been the cause. And then it was at least plausible for the passage to remain sealed. But, Erramir doubted those options–they seemed too benign.

An intentional act of some unseen hand made more sense to him. Which most likely meant a hidden enemy was tracking them. He reasoned it was almost certainly an enemy since, in his mind, the only benevolent reason to seal the tunnel would be to force them deeper into the mines for some greater purpose. Aside from being twisted, that seemed a thin sting of logic to hang his hopes on. They were the same color as the evil essence. It has to be an enemy.

Resolved to assume the worst case, he couldn’t think of anything proactive other than staying alert. So, he pulled up his notifications to finish reading what had been rudely interrupted by the Varden tattoo and Val’s breakdown.

Abandoned Quest Discovered – Settlement 9 – The Brael Bloudran lands are under assault! Mining settlement 9 has fallen, severing the link to our allies in Qar’Dakar. Communication with Xanathar has also fallen silent, leaving the Brael without support from imperial forces. Take a strike team, reclaim settlement 9, discover how the connection has been severed and, reestablish our link with Qar’Dakar.

Quest update – Settlement 9 – You have discovered that settlement 9 was overrun but corrupted unbound essence. Upon detecting your presence, the corruption infected a heavy mining construct, animating it as Undavir, the zone Champion. Your victory over Undavir has scattered the corruption and temporarily made the settlement safe. To permanently secure the location and reestablish communication with Qar’Darkar, you must now cleanse the corrupted essence.

Champion defeated – 1/1 (reset in 9 days, 22 hours, 51 minutes)

Corrupted Unbound Essence cleansed – 0%

Link to Qar’Dakar reestablished – 0/1

Quest reward: 32 Imperials and standing with the Brael Bloudran Laird

New Quest – Und Varden Indoctrination – An order of elite warriors, the Und Varden's sworn mission is guarding against the corruption of void essence. Your victory at Settlement 9 is the first in a stalemate that has existed since the end of the Void War. It defeating Undivir, your party activated the Und Varden indoctrination bond and have thus been marked as initiates to this ancient and prestigious order of guardians.

Much was lost by many during the War. However, few losses compare to those of the Und Varden. The near eradication of their order and the desolation of the lands around their center of power in the territory of the Brael Bloudran Dwarves was their sacrifice. It was the price they paid to save all of Kuora.

Even so, the War was not won, only fought to a standstill. Since then, the Und Varden Commander has held the corruption imprisoned in his homeland for more than a millennia.

To complete your indoctrination, find and present yourself to the Und Varden Commander.

Reward: Full membership in the Und Varden, training, and equipment.

Bonus: Complete the Settlement 9 Quest.

Bonus Reward: +50% to Settlement 9 Quest reward.

Erramir dismissed the messages and quickened his pace to a loping run. A slow walk was all he could safely manage with his vision full of text.

Crossing the tenth level bridge back to the other side of the canyon, he looked down on the pile of rubble. It was rocks and dust; nothing had changed. Not even sure what he was expecting, he was struck again with regret at the waste of leaving behind all the loot buried beneath.

There was nothing for it. Carson might be able to move all that rock if he woke up. But they'd still have no way to haul it. So far, there was no indication of Kuora having an inventory system.

Down the ramps and switchbacks, Erramir ran, pondering how he could awaken a dimensional storage skill. Rune Crafting might make it possible, and considering it, he managed to dream up a few vague shapes that he liked. Erramir had no idea if the shapes were just a fantasy or if the skill somehow granted him access to a general knowledge set about runes. Either way, he got excited about experimenting.

A few floors from the bottom, he had the sudden idea to test his fall limit. Thirty feet seems a safe height to try. I can jump at least twelve or fourteen straight up. Thirty isn't that much more.

He paused considering the thought. It seemed... unlike him. That’s... really not sound math, is it? It wasn't, but he felt compelled all the same. Erramir genuinely wanted the data. It seemed like something that would be important to know. So, before he could talk himself out of acting, he vaulted over the 3rd level railing.

Thirty feet of fall suddenly seemed like complete idiocy, and as he accelerated toward the stone cavern bottom, Erramir briefly wondered at his own sanity. Before landing, he refocused and hit the ground like a comic-book hero, in a three-point landing.

It almost worked.

His left knee came up under his left elbow while his right knee went to the ground, clearing room for his right hand to aid in absorbing the impact. All perfectly executed, up until his right knee hit the ground with such force that Erramir distinctly felt his patella split in half.

The agony hit him like a white-hot wrecking ball. Apparently, there was no adrenaline-sourced pain suppression outside of combat.

His mind popped free of its suicidal data gathering fixation; he engaged his boosted healing, quivered, then rocked back onto his ass, or tried to. His sword hit first, whacking him in the back of the head and pushing his helmet into his eyes. Cursing the damn tin can, he knocked it off to clatter away as he tumbled onto his side.

Through the torrent of anguish, he got an urgent sense that his leg needed to be straight. Dreading the reaction but having learned to trust these feelings, he reached around with his right hand and pulled his left shoulder to his mouth.

Then he extended his leg and screamed like a torture victim into that shoulder. Erramir felt far too embarrassed about this little act of stupidity to let his friends know about it. A searing rod of lava lanced his knee, then like a switch was flipped, it was gone. Erramir opened his eyes and found he was looking down upon himself. He was separated from and hovering above his body.

Well, this is strange as fuck.

His body lay dead still, no movement, but his eyes were darting about behind closed lids. He felt struck by an odd sense of ease and comfort. This was not his real body, yet it was still his body. It was also a body that he liked very much. Then he looked up to the balcony from which he’d leaped. What the hell is wrong with me. The sight compelled him to catalog the lessons learned from his comically stupid leap.

He wasn’t a superhero. When not fighting, pain was 100% an Earth equivalent. The patella needed to be protected at all costs. He could spirit surf. Spirit surfing needed further investigation. A Kuoran version of his beetle suit needed looking into. He needed a better fucking helmet.

Directly on the heels of completing his list, Erramir’s spirit form was drawn back into his body. The experience was curious, then he felt the lingering hurt. “Arghh, fuck me,” he growled, still trying to keep from alerting Val. “Damn premature spirit form collapse.”

For several minutes he rocked gently on the ground while his ability finished stitching together the tiny lump of bone that was his kneecap. When the pain finally faded, Erramir stood and tested his leg, finding it only a little tender.

Then regarded his helmet for a long moment. He was tempted to boot it into the pile of rocks and leave the thing here. Eventually, he sighed in recognition that this temptation was just childish and snatched it up, absently wondering what kind of Elven warrior would have a head larger than his.

His good mood returned quickly with his leg healed. Thinking clearly, Erramir realized that despite second-guessing himself while addled, he had actually learned quite a bit from the odd compulsion to experiment with acceptable fall distance. And, given a choice, he would make the leap again. Next time, though, I think I’ll roll.

Valerie was lying on her back, head to head, in line with Carson’s unconscious form, tossing the gear straight up in the air and catching it. “It didn’t work?” He asked.

She paused and then threw it again. “Not quite.” She replied. “We hit some... hurdles.”

Erramir waited a moment for more, then realized that was all Valerie was going to volunteer. She didn’t seem upset about the failure; rather, she seemed quite at peace with it, which was a considerable improvement from her last reaction.

“Well, we’re not getting out that way.” He sighed, then, with a wry grin, said, “Locked into the frozen wasteland and now down here–trapped twice over, it seems.”

“Hah, almost seems like we’re being herded,” Val said. And Erramir thought the joking comment was pretty close to the mark.

“You’re kidding, but I think you might be right. The passage entrance is gone, not collapsed or blocked off, gone. There’s a clean rock wall where it used to be, and it’s covered with runes.”

“Well fuck me. I was kidding but... wait, really? You’re not screwing with me, are you?”

“No joke. Straight cavern rock, purple runes in a big circle where it used to be.”

“Shit. Well, that definitely changes things. Do you think someone is trying to lead us into a trap?”

“I don’t know, but this last fight should really have killed us. If it’s a trap, that was probably it. We should still stay alert, though. It’s possible we’re being followed. The runes might tell us something, but I couldn’t get a good look. The landing’s still there, but it was too far to jump. I’m also not sure when the wall closed off. Any number of random things we did could have tripped it: when I touched the pipe, when we got to the bottom, when Carson dropped his first rock. There's no way of knowing."

He rubbed his chin. “It could also be somehow connected to that new Settlement 9 quest. Did you read that one?”

Val nodded. “Yep, good quest. I guess Imperials are money here.”

“Right, hopefully, 32 is worth something. Not that we have the slightest idea where this Und Varden Commander is to collect. I wonder if the passage out would reopen if we completed the Settlement 9 quest, or at least did the cleansing part.”

He looked at the prone form of their mage. “Maybe Carson could figure that out.” Then gave a dismissive wave. “Even if he did, though, it wouldn’t matter because the balcony is still out of reach.”

Val tossed the gear again. “That does sound like a typical dungeon.” Then caught it. “We complete the quest, and the door reopens. But yeah, open door or no, sounds like we’re still trapped. You sure we can’t reach the ledge?”

“I might make it, maybe... it’s at least thirty feet out and ten feet up, but if I missed, I’m dead. There’s no surviving a couple hundred-foot fall onto jagged rocks. I suppose we could chance it, but the tunnel is blocked–kind of stupid while we’ve got other options.”

“Right, and who wants to backtrack anyhow.” Val pointed down the tunnel. “Onward and downward, I say.”