The dungeon entrance could have been any other tunnel or doorway in the vastness of the ruined city. Robin studied it alongside the rest of his party. It was a simple archway of crumbling stone, but given the control dungeons tended to have over their demesne, it was likely that a cruise missile wouldn’t dislodge so much as a pebble on a direct hit.

‘I don’t like how innocent it looks,’ Jhess complained. ‘Those are the ones you have to watch out for. Give me a dungeon with skulls on pikes or ominous vapours issuing forth any day.’

‘Weal and woe, both in great measure, if we enter here,’ Savra said, studying her coin. ‘I’m guessing from the way the futures shift there are many branching tunnels inside, many opportunities for things to go wrong.’

‘And many opportunities for them to go right!’ Vance added brightly.

‘Are we sending the catbird in to scout?’ Jhess asked, prompting Rerebos to arch his back and hiss in alarm.

‘I don’t think Riri approves of your suggestion,’ Drev said wryly. He squinted into the entrance. ‘I don’t see any obvious lurking monsters. Jhess, can you do a quick trap assessment?’

It should be safe enough for them in the outer fringes of the dungeon’s territory. Dungeons had instincts that drove them to lure people in, and death on one’s doorstep tended to discourage that.

Robin stepped closer, the gloom on the inside of the archway no barrier to his vision, though the tunnel sharply cut perpendicular quite soon after the entrance, so what he could see was limited.

The walls and floor were worked stone, all of which matched that used int eh building around them, yellow and squared. The architectural style, however, was off. There was no reason for a corridor to suddenly branch off so aggressively.

‘No traps,’ Jhess reported after a careful examination. ‘I’ll head in and—‘

‘Hang on,’ Robin said, suspicious of the set up. Something was off here. ‘How we look for hidden doors? There and there.’ Robin pointed to the wall, where the passageway would continue straight on in a normal building, and at the wall opposite the direction the open passage ran.

‘You think this is another Ruprecht style place?’ Jhess grimaced. ‘Just what we need.’

‘We’re in the capital city of a highly illusion-focused culture,’ he replied. ‘I think the odds are somewhat better than average that we’ll run into a lot of this kind of shenanigans.’

Jhess grumbled but began a careful examination of the walls, Robin doing the same, though while Jhess was searching for mechanical triggers, he was looking for more illusory means of concealing entrances and exits.

There was a click and the wall swung open in from of Jhess, directly opposite the obvious corridor.

‘Found one,’ Jhess said triumphantly.

There’s no way it was only one. Not here. Not in this world so fascinated with multiples of three, in a city of illusions. Robin’s mind flashed back to the concealment of that little shrine to Rhyth he had awakened in—it seemed like a lifetime ago. He moved his hand along the wall where he would. conceal a door if he was building this place. It felt solid. Still, illusion could fool all of the senses, so he also pushed.

His hand went through the wall.

‘One here too,’ he called over his shoulder.

‘Fascinating!’ Vance was staring at Robin’s arm, which appeared to have sunk up to the elbow into solid stone. He reached out to touch the wall. ‘It feels completely solid!’

‘That is a tier seven effect, at least,’ Savra said sombrely.

‘Well, we knew this place would be something else before we left Noviel,’ Jhess said. ‘But that doesn’t answer the real question here. Which way to we go?’

The party fell into a quick, quiet debate, stepping back out of the dungeon to do so. There was no way it wasn’t aware of their presence, but there was no reason to telegraph their every move. Delving in living dungeons was much more dangerous than exploring other kinds. Even if there were limits to the actions they could take against an adventuring party within their demesne, smart ones could and did stack the board, shifting monsters around or—like Ruprecht—building traps that circumvented some of their limitations.

Thank you [Bardic Lore]!

Because this was, predominately, an information gathering sortie, they agreed to scout carefully down each passage, with Robin mapping it as they went, before deciding which one to follow deeper. The central corridor seemed the most likely one to bear fruit, both because it was most likely to lead to the spot marked in Red’s journal but also because of the nature of the concealment on that doorway.

So they left it for the last, to explore. The other two were quickly assessed, to a distance of a few hundred meters. A couple potential deadfalls and one magical trap altered to look like a malfunctioning artefact from the ruined city were all they found down the first one. The one behind the hidden door Jhess discovered was a bit more interesting, it was styled as some kind of long lost thieves hideaway. It made no sense that it would be here, but Robin had to assign points for thematic effort. Jhess managed to uncover a couple small coin pouches so she was happy.

While the party was searching, Robin sent Rerebos a couple quiet instructions via telepathy and his familiar popped out of sight and flitted down the third passageway to scout ahead.

The little dragon-in-disguise reported that the corridor was uninteresting but that it ended in what appeared to be some kind of hidden temple, possibly the same location the was marked in the journal.

Robin bit back excitement. Whatever the place had been, the dungeon had claimed it as its own. There was no telling what changes had been made.

Didn’t mean he wasn’t raring to get there and find out, though.

Movement! There is something here! Alarm flared through his mind as Rerebos spotted a flicker in the shadows.

Stay out of sight! We’ll be there soon. Robin sent back.

‘Next one?’ he asked aloud, using a hand signal the party had established for silent and discreet communication to indicate that there was likely some kind of enemy or ambush ahead.

‘Next one,’ Jhess confirmed, pulling her dagger. To keep is casual, she began flipping it idly in her hand.

The corridor was almost as empty as Rerebos had indicated. Almost. Jhess found two trip wires and a pressure plate. Rerebos, flying, tended to miss out on these details.

They were simple enough for the rogue to bypass, however.

‘This is too easy,’ Jhess complained under her breath.

Robin agreed. Whatever was in that temple that Rerebos had found was like much, much worse than they imagined, on balance. That was the only thing that made sense.

Not that he fully understood the dungeon mindset. The only reason he understood as much as he did was from his time with Ruprecht, and even then, the dungeon had once been human—had once possibly been a version of himself! How that translated to the thinking of other living dungeons was something he could only make educated guesses on.

[Bardic Lore] notwithstanding.

Soon enough they made it to the entry of the ‘hidden temple.’ Robin paused as the party scanned the room for threats.

Any more movement?

No. I have watched the shadows and seen nothing. Rerebos didn’t sound reassured, however.

Robin pulled a small bit of rock from storage and flicked it into the centre of the room. It plinked across the floor, the noise suddenly loud in the oppressive silence, but nothing stirred.

‘Magelight,’ Jhess suggested.

Drev complied, casting a small sphere of purple-white light high above to hover near the ceiling of the room. It was higher than it had any right to be, actually, more a cathedral done in miniature than a modest hidden temple.

The light glittered off of dusty gold and flared in several inset gems. Probably glass, Robin thought critically. Not that that would stop Jhess from checking every single one.

Still, there was no movement.

Vance, the most durable of them, conjured sheets of parchment around himself like armour and they flexed and took on the hue of night, with small motes of light swirling within them like stars. A massive shield appeared in his right hand, similar in appearance to his armour.

Something about that armour seemed familiar. There was a story—ah! His [Bardic Lore] pinged. The Ascent and Fall of Noxon, Paladin of Ipherea. Noxon had been renowned for his defensive raiment, and though whatever it was that Vance conjured out of legend with his magic was usually but a pale imitation, even the imitation of something great could be formidable in its own right.

Hopefully enough to protect them from whatever was out there.

Vance didn’t immediately conjure the sword of silver starlight that should accompany the shield of night, but Robin was sure he could call it forth in an instant, if need be. And keeping something like that manifest no doubt was quite the drain on one’s magical energies.

Thus warded, Vance stepped into the room. This time Robin’s eyes caught a flicker of movement in the shadows. A flaming card—the manifestation of a [Lesser Witchbolt]—appeared ready in his hand.

‘All is not as it appears,’ Savra warned.

Well that was telling the sailor the sea was wet.

‘More light,’ Jhess called.

Drev responded with a barrage of orbs of glowing force. That was a new one! Robin wondered what made the spell different.

Whatever the purpose, the effect was to banish many of the shadows whilst simultaneously casting new ones. Robin’s eyes were lucky enough to catch the full on movement this time, with none of the natural shadows in place.

A figure coiled and thrashed in annoyance before darting toward first one, then another of the shadows cast by Drev’s magic. As the orbs moved, however, so did the shadows, and the thing was forced to follow if it wished to remain mostly hidden.

Which it would do, if only to increase the effectiveness of its attacks. It had two legs, two arms, and had the general shape of a hobgoblin, but it was, all things considered, just a shade of that actual being.

Literally.

It was another motherfucking shadow!