“This tracks…” Lance muttered, looking around him as he took position right after the dungeon portal entrance. All around him, rolling hills and towering trees stood, hiding the sky above. Ancient vegetation meant that ground cover was pretty sparse, which was good except for the lack of light coming down, making the area away from the gleaming portal yawning abysses.

The occasional howl of gnolls in the distance, so reminiscent of the upright wolves they ressembled was enough to make the hairs on the back of his head standup, and his breathing quicken. The smell that the wind, drifting through the trees brought – musky and bloody – was another telltale, alien aspect to this world.

Oh, and the hanging purple moon the size of a fist that dominated the surroundings. Couldn’t forget that.

“Love, light?” Matt muttered, prodding his girlfriend in the side as she stood, staring around her.

Moments later, the first light source was fired into the distance where it hung, mid-air. It extended the range of what they could see, bathing an area of ten feet radius in soft yellow light.

“I have two options here. I can shoot light out into the distance, lock it in place. It’ll last about twenty or so minutes each time, but will eventually die off.” Keeley said, cracking her head from side-to-side as she continued. “Second option, I hang a light above me. Chanelled, but brighter than the ones I leave hanging. However, that’s it. One light.”

“So multiple, fixed light sources but we have to wait for your cooldown to finish or a single light source…” Neil said, wincing. “That’s not great.”

“We want to be able to see those monsters before they come. Getting sneak attacked is not fun,” Sarah added, still idly flexing her new arm. “Trust me on that.”

“Yup, we’ve got an armful of advice already,” Yanesh said.

“Are you… are you punning?” Sarah replied, looking horrified.

“Umm… maybe I should get running?” Yanesh replied.

There was a long silence before Lance turned to Keeley and raised his voice, ignoring Sarah as she got Yanesh in a headlock and proceeded to noogie him. “Let’s go with the single light for now. The rest of us should just bite the bullet and get low-light or no light skills.”

The others nodded while Matt kept turning his head from side-to-side, eyeing the darkness outside of the paired circles of light. “Earlier the better, I’d say.”

“Monsters?” Lance asked, even Sarah and Yanesh breaking off their horse play and growing serious immediately.

“Not sure. I’d assume so, but hard to tell…” Matt said. “They’re flitting between the trees. Not gnolls, something smaller.”

“Weird. Last time, we met the monsters when they came out, even the hobs eventually. How come these aren’t?” Neil said.

No one had an answer for him, so the group waited in silence until Keeley was able to throw a bright light above their heads, hovering over her before she walked forwards. It sucked that they would have to take a slot for low or no light, but assuming more of these dungeons were like that, it made sense. Even equipment like hovering drones with flashlights or light orbs – he’d spotted those – could be destroyed. Something innate was a lot less likely to cause trouble.

Ass the group moved forwards, he heard the thwack-hiss of an arrow loosing and flying pass. He watched it disappear into the darkness, frowning as Matt called for them to head in that direction. Since he was the scout, they choose to follow his instructions, soon coming to find what he had targeted.

Matt was crouched by the lizard that had been shredded, the barbed arrow having expanded within the monster’s body such that one part of it had been shredded entirely from the inside. The entire lizard creature was three feet long, but Matt waved Neil away as the man reached forwards to touch.

“Don’t. The slime on it is poison,” Matt explained.

“How’d you know?” Neil said, pulling his hand back.

“There’s a skill called Scout’s Knowledge. Doesn’t provide a lot of detail but it gives me an innate understanding of some monsters and other things.” He gestured at the trees. “These are ummm… well, there’s a name in my head but I can’t pronounce it. Hardwood trees, provide oxygen, can live for tens of thousands of years.” He shrugged. “There’s also a little bit of knowledge about how to sneak around, check for traps, that kind of thing.”

“Sort of like a martial mastery, but for scouts, eh?” Lance said. “Nice.”

“It is. Anyway, don’t touch the lizards. That’s definitely poison on them. I think the only reason we haven’t seen them is because they don’t like light, so our world’s too bright for them right now. But with nightime coming…” Matt gestured again to where they had started moving towards them. “Well, there you go.”

“Right…” Lance shook his head. “Doesn’t matter, we’ve got a bigger problem than alien lizards trying to get into earth.”

“What’s that?” Sarah said, the woman having turned away from the group to stare into the darkness. “And if you say the gnolls, I know.”

“Not going to answer that. But specifically, the problem is the size of this place. How the hell are we supposed to find the boss?” Lance said, sounding frustrated. “At least the other dungeon, there was a clear line to move in. Here, we could be going in the wrong direction.”

Another howl, this one a lot closer had them looking around. Keeley sighed. “I think maybe we don’t have to worry about that. I think they’re coming for us…”

Under that rather worrying words, the group pulled back, returning towards the portal entrance. It seemed to be a better idea at least, since Keeley could emplace lights. Rather than walking around, at least till they dealt with the first wave.

As the howls neared, they couldn’t help but think that the first wave was definitely coming fast.