“Why can’t I be inside?” Burn whined, shaking in his boots and trying to pour a mix of liquids into a clay bottle. “I could be inside helping them unload.”

I looked over my shoulder and waved to Lin, she was helping Otto and the boatmen unload the most recent shipment. The sunny winter day made everything blinding, a sharp harsh sea of white snow existing with the sole intent to blind me.

“Tie this over your eyes,” Sten huffed, holding out a strip of cloth to me.

I did so, lining up the two eye slits over my eyes and giving myself the ability to see again. Burn started to complain again and Sten cursed under his breath, tearing off another strip of fabric off the bottom of his cloak. One quick flash of his dagger later he made another band and tossed it to Burn.

“Thanks, Sten. Don’t know what we would do without you,” I said.

“Well, I would offer to be a chief miner, but I would be your slowest worker,” Sten chuckled.

A huge wave of dirt shot over our shoulders and we turned to see a few dirty minions proudly standing as tall as they could. A tunnel tall enough for me was dug into the farmland and cut down into the rock layer, before twisting towards the destination of the void. It was a rather roundabout way of doing it, but a safety precaution.

“Let’s pop the cork!” I said, flicking on my flashlight and leading the way. I drew a long knife that Lin had lent me, feeling more confident with a weapon in hand. “Any issues Drone one?”

“Nep,” Drone 1 said.

He jogged ahead of us and waved at us to hurry. The minions around us were buzzing with excitement, charging ahead out of sight around a bend. Once we finally caught up we found them standing in front of an earthen wall, with a layer of minion concrete sealing it off.

“The last keeper did this,” I said.

Sten hefted his weapon and went to the front, holding his pickaxe at the ready. He pointed to me and gestured behind him, then to Burn to take position across from him. Sten held a finger to his mouth, and gave Drone 1 a signal.

Drone 1 went ahead, tearing at the wall with his claws, working slowly to keep the noise and dust down. Once the minion had felt out the wall, working it to a paper thin width I could see light come through, he backed up and crouched out of the way.

“Time to shine ladies!” Sten bellowed, surging into the wall with his shoulder.

The rock wall offered no resistance to the cannonball smashing through it. Rock chips shot out and I instinctively cast a flame orb, and moved it over my shoulder, getting it to hover there at the ready. Burn held out two bottles at the ready, screeching with all the pent up fury of a housecat with a bone to pick.

Our battle cries died in our throats as we were left in a bewildered state. Inside was a small cave network, with walls of iridescent colour. Vibrant purples, greens and blues dotted the walls as small rock formations seemed to form symbols and shapes. Sten curiously approached a wall and chipped off a perfect cube off the end of a stalagmite.

“There’s stuff on each side, like a dice,” Sten said.

Burn poked at Sten’s side and whispered. “Are you going to roll it?”

“Do I look daft?” Sten sputtered, shoving the cube into Burn’s chest. “Feel free to roll a dice from the weird cave from a dead keeper. That thing is probably laced with every dark drop of magic from their cursed kind, uh, present company excluded.”

“Don’t worry, no hard feelings,” I said.

There were many objects growing on the ends of the stalagmites and stalactites. Cups, plates and even a set of cutlery. The oddest was a statue of an elven woman that was almost nude, with glossy green jade like rock forming her shapely body.

“Taking that,” Sten mumbled, “For uh, selling. Should be worth a gold piece.”

“What is this place?” I asked.

Burn found a carved out section that had a worn desk with books on top of it. He flipped through a few pages and looked around. Sten and I followed him as he matched up the growing rock forms with pictures and art in the book.

“Boss man, I’ve seen a lot of stuff before, but nothing like this. I think we might be dealing with…a crystal sage,” Burn said.

Sten gasped and plucked a hair from his beard. He coiled it up, mumbled into it and threw it over his shoulder. From that reaction and the line of sweat of Burn’s brow I had a guess it was bad news.

Knowledge Arcane : Failure!

“Don’t speak of such things, Burn,” Sten said. He shivered and tightened his grip on his pickaxe. “The light is weird here, scattering off everything. Keep an eye on the shadows lads.”

Sten led the way as our tank with his mining headlight on his helmet sending out a bright cone of light. The cavern we were in was a network of twists and turns, with the strangest thing being that it was man made. Well minion made to be exact, the walls were all formed by claws or filled in with minion concrete and since we were still in range of the dungeon I could see we were nearing the area the keeper crystal’s tendrils moved around.

I held a hand up to slow down the group and preemptively casted Produce Fire. With the flame over my shoulder and the dagger at the ready I had an honest shot at bursting any foe that attacked us. Of course it might only distract them, which also would give Sten a chance to smash them to bits.

Sten gestured to us and we huddled around him, he spoke in a low gravelly tone that made it hard to hear. “I’ll head in first with Josh behind me since he's the tallest. If I let out a battle cry and enter my rage you all join us, but stay out of my reach.”

“I can probably get two to three spells out in rapid succession before I start getting dizzy, any request?” I asked.

“Blast any big blokes in the face, and ranged foes or spellcasters with your rope spell,” Sten said.

“I got a few fire protection potions, here Sten, take one so Josh doesn’t have to worry about aiming,” Burn said, tossing the bottle to Sten. As the dwarf cracked open the top Burn scratched at his chin. “I think I put something in to neutralize the spice-”

“Ho-o-ot, hot, hot,” Sten wheezed while fanning his mouth. “I need water, by the gods above or below please anyone!”

I dug around my pack and found nothing, but lucky for me Drone 1 had planned ahead. He handed a clay pot of juice to him and Sten wasted no time in slapping the top of it, shattering the seal. He downed the entire contents while hopping on his feet and when the last drop touched his tongue he finally eased up.

Burn smartly hid behind me and beyond the reach of our now furious dwarf. Burn shuffled around me as Sten tried to chase him and I had to put out my hands to halt the two of them. I tapped the end of my flashlight on Burn’s head and the pommel of the dagger on Sten’s helmet to call their attention.

“Okay, if we are done giving away our position can we walk in?” I sighed, and marched into the room by myself. When I rounded the corner I stopped dead in my tracks and felt my jaw hit the floor. “Holy s-”

The wide circular room had a domed room etched with art over its entire surface, creating images of grand mountain vistas and shooting stars. Unknown constellations were mapped out to create images of animals or dragons in heavens above, all facing down to the room below. The ground of the room was smoothed out perfectly with the only disruption being a huge basin the size of a swimming pool in the middle. The raised stone ring around the basin had ten circular cut outs around its base and when I got closer I could see it was a pool filled with mysterious hazy purple liquid.

“That's some good juice,” Burn said behind me, shaking me out of my thoughts. “Mana infused water like that is great for crafting.”

“Look at this basin, that’s all formed from the rock that used to be here,” Sten said.

Sten crouched down and ran his gloved hand along the perimeter of the basin, rubbing grime down into the water. As the dirt touched the water’s surface it made a hissing sound and vanished in a flash. The rather violent reaction made us all back up and give the water a wide berth.

The sound of sliding stone shook the room and the far side opened up to reveal a hidden room. The wide opening revealed six tall statues made of shaped rock. The faces of each one were meticulously made and looked life-like, to an uncanny degree. Sten shuffled forwards and pointed his light directly at one.

“Forgotten,” Sten growled. “Keep an eye out for traps-”

The nearest statue cracked and Sten threw himself to the ground, placing his hands over his head. The minions ran ahead of me and formed a defensive line in an attempt to body block any attacks while I grabbed Sten with Burn and dragged him towards where we came in. Once the minions retreated with us we flattened ourselves against the edge of the entryway of the basin room.

I chanced a peek around the edge and saw one of the forgotten on the ground in the hidden room on the far side. The sudden and terrifying ambush down in the tunnels came to the forefront of my thoughts. They did flee when we fought back, but who knows what would happen if they were backed against a wall.

“Old,” Drone 1 said.

I looked down at him and then looked at the face down Forgotten. The long robes he wore obscured most of his body and his sickly white skin was wrinkled making me believe the Forgotten was aged. All of us were hesitant except for Drone 1, who started to run towards the hidden room.

“Don’t run by the pool!” I said in a low hoarse voice and ran to catch up to Drone 1. “Drone one, get back here!”

Strangely he didn’t listen, instead running full tilt with his four arms flailing behind him as he charged straight into the room and stopped beside the downed being. The forgotten made a sound and I slid to a halt in my tracks. I held my flashlight on it and prepared for any signs of aggression.

Drone 1 found a staff beside the statue and helped the Forgotten up, and with the ancient sagged face to go along with the long mighty beard on the Forgotten man’s face I had to agree with Drone 1, this guy was old.

The other statues began to crack and one by one old, weak Forgotten stumbled out. Their outfits were similar to the last group we had run into down in the tunnels, but these guys also had bones piercing the lobes of their droopy ears. The only one that was far different was the ancient one, and his skin seemed to lack that bioluminescent light the others had too.

We helped them out and took them into the previous room while Sten stood at the ready with his weapon. For now we saw no signs of aggression, and they lacked any meaningful weapons giving us the upper hand.

“These lads are skin on bone,” Sten observed. “They won’t offer much of a fight if we attack now-”

Drone 1 cut him off by waving his arms in the typical fashion of minions unloading their inventory. A slew of shadowy mist erupted into the room and caused the Forgotten to panic, except for the ancient long bearded one who gazed at Drone 1 with curiosity with his large grey coloured eyes. When all was said and done, strewn out between our team and them was a picnic blanket full of food and drinks.

“You brought a picnic to dungeon exploration?” Burn asked.

Drone 1 jumped for joy and spread out his arms into a star pattern. “Ta-a-dah!”

While Drone 1 was all smiles and joy the rest of us were at edge. The Forgotten stared at us with distrust and readied their fists in a desperate state while Burn and Sten glared at them with unbridled fury.

“Forgotten are child snatchers, thieves and kidnappers. Don’t take your eye off these monsters for a second,” Burn said.

“Dwarves have lost many mines over the years, and these…things are always near. They are schemers at best, and pests at the worst,” Sten said, spitting on the ground.

The sunken eyes of the ancient Forgotten darted between all of us, and rested on me. His gaze wasn’t hostile, just curious, like he was trying to get a read of me. At that moment I saw he had sent a request to see my character information and wanted to share his own.

“Sure,” I said in an easy going tone and lowered my weapon.

A cautious Sten grumbled beside me. “Josh.”

“It’s fine Sten, they seem friendly and maybe they can tell us what this place is,” I said.

Skalan’tulah, Felsdogra human, Level 15 Crystal Sage

My mouth hung open and after I managed to regain control over my motor functions I leaned over to Sten and whispered. “Sten, we really need to play nice.”

Sten didn’t reply, instead only nodding slowly while being wide eyed himself. I could tell he was also reading the Forgotten’s character info. While the crystal sage standing across the picnic table looked weak, leaning heavily on his staff I was still fearful. While in his state we could probably end him with a single strike, who knew what kind of insane spell power he had at his fingertips.

One of the Forgotten beside him stumbled and the mage reached out to catch his fellow man. I could see their chapped lips, their ragged breath and taunt skin. It didn’t bode well for their health and I didn’t even know if a meal would help them at this point.

Perception skill : Success!

+2 XP gained.

On a closer look they didn’t seem too bad, the weird glowing skin was ashy and had initially thrown me off. The sage must have locked them into the statues as a way to preserve them and the spell must still be wearing off. However I could see their eyes dart around the spread of food in front of them and could tell they were starving, which meant an easy way to open diplomacy.

“Hungry?” I asked.

The Forgotten men looked at me in confusion, and the crystal sage with the nearly unpronounceable name spoke back in a strange language. When that didn’t get anywhere he spoke slowly as if struggling to speak.

“Hu-man right, very hun-gry,” the words came out slowly, each syllable being articulated with hesitation as if the words might bite his tongue.

Sten tapped on my side to get my attention. “Josh, it's customary for leaders to eat together, with the host taking a bite first to make sure it's not poisoned.”

I sat down at the end of the picnic blanket and the Forgotten crystal sage did the same on his side. I looked around to see a mix of bread, cooked mushrooms, fruit, and juice. There was also an uncut wheel of cheese Rolada had been looking for this morning and now I knew where it went.

The sage watched me with hungry eyes and I felt embarrassed for holding off a meal from the starving men. I took the small morsels I could find, the smallest fruits and sipped at one of the juices. Once it was determined I was fine the sage grunted and the Forgotten fell onto the picnic blanket grabbing whatever was in reach. I caught sight of their teeth biting into the fruit and the first thing that stood out to me was how pronounced and flat their teeth were.

The sage ate slowly while his fellows ate like ravenous wolves. The others joined me and each grabbed a little bit to eat, but left the majority for the Forgotten. I could tell Burn and Sten were still leery, but I had a good feeling about this.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“Keeper pool,” the sage said bluntly.

Knowledge Arcane : Failure!

I frowned and tapped the ground beside me, annoyed that yet again I was lacking important info. “Did the last keeper make this place?”

The crystal sage let out a wheezing laugh, and shook his head. He tapped his chest and waved a hand around the room, “I make.”

I looked around the room wondering how he could have made this place, they didn’t have mining tools, and the only guess I had was magic. I looked back to the room they had been trapped in and noticed something odd. Behind the statues were a pile of broken daggers and spoons next to a wall someone had tried to dig through.

“New Keeper. You come,” the crystal sage said.

I blinked and noticed he was speaking rather good English, or whatever equivalent language was spoken here. However I felt the words fall into my ears, when I saw his mouth didn’t line up with the sounds right.

Knowledge Arcane : Success!

+1 XP gained.

Gift of Tongues is a spell that allows the caster to speak in their desired language while the target of the spell hears it in one language they are knowledgeable in. Most words or phrases can be directly translated, while nuanced meaning can be lost.

“It works both ways right?” I asked the sage, and when he nodded I clapped my hands together. “Lead the way. Drone one, want to come along?”

Drone 1 was excited to come along, and we followed the sage to the room. I had to wave Sten off to keep him at the picnic blanket, and I glanced around at the other Forgotten then him. Sten seemed to understand and he stayed behind to keep an eye on them in case this was a trap. I could probably take on an old weak man if he tried to attack me, probably.

The broken utensils were made of grown rock like so many things in the last cave, and I saw the wall here was made of the minion concrete. They had made poor progress here, and I could see what was once a tunnel had been sealed off for some reason.

“Keeper free?” the crystal sage asked hopefully.

I queued up a work order and the minions rushed in, making short work of the concrete. After a few minutes they had dug out the length of the tunnel and broke out into a new open space. I followed them in and found a weird room, with tables, scales, weights and an iron gate.

The gate led into the darkness of what looked like a natural cave. I looked around in the room we were in and the meaning became clear. The last keeper must have established trade with the Forgotten, and then after commissioning the ‘keeper pool’ must have turned on them for some reason. I didn't see any reason to trap or harm the Forgotten, and I looked around for a way to open it.

On our side was a lever and after applying some elbow grease I got it moving. Gears turned and a chain was moving within the walls, once everything had finished moving the gate rose up out of the way.

“Keeper…let us go?” the crystal sage asked hesitantly.

“I don’t know why the last keeper did this, but I’m not him. You're free to go,” I said, stepping back out of the way.

The Forgotten and the others broke away from the picnic and came down the tunnel. When they saw the open gate the Forgotten ran past me and into the cave, fearful they wouldn’t get another chance to flee. The crystal sage slowly moved towards the gate, stopping in front of me and held out an amulet.

“New keeper good, new keeper get pool,” he said in a raspy voice.

I reached out to take the amulet, and when my hand touched it I felt a jolt pass through my body. When the amulet was passed off the sage relaxed as if a great personal weight had been lifted off his ancient body. He joined his fellows at the other side of the gate and motioned for me to close it behind them.

The Forgotten made themselves scarce and after securing the gate we returned to the room with the basin. The picnic blanket was a disaster with only the smallest of crumbs remaining unscathed. The minions went about cleaning it up while I checked out the amulet.

“Bah, I can’t believe we just sat down to eat with monsters,” Sten grumbled.

Burn kicked at a mushy piece of fruit and spat, “They could do with some table manners too.”

I scratched at the scruff on my cheek and shook my head. I wasn’t going to change their minds over a chance meeting, and who knows maybe they were the only friendly Forgotten in the world. I held out the amulet and saw it was a stone disc with several lines etched into it, with some of the text being written in Igni characters.

The room shifted under our feet and everyone pulled out their weapons as we tried to look for the source. Sten swore and started to blame the Forgotten while Burn tried to make a break for the exit. The floor around the basin cracked and tendrils from my crystal appeared, with one going out of its way to trip Burn. They entered the slots beneath the edge of the basin, and slotted into them with a satisfying click. Once they did, I saw a space sized for the amulet appear on the edge of the stone lip, pointing towards my dungeon.

The amulet fit like it was made for it and sunk into the hole, melding together with the stone and completing it. A great flow of mana passed through the tendrils and then pulsed back towards the crystal. Once it reached my crystal a new notification appeared.

Keeper Pool added to the dungeon.

Regional effects can now be accessed.

Lair actions can now be accessed.

I grinned and cracked my knuckles, “Oh hell yeah.”