Friends in a Foreign Land

Later that evening the party sat at their usual table with Mayor Helen and Guard Captain Christi. Jacob had locked the doors and was refilling everyone’s cup.

“So you were surrounded by over thirty goblins that were being lead by a hobgoblin?” Christi asked in disbelief. “And you’re all still here?”

Arden laughed as he replied, “Yeah, we’re a bit hard to get rid of.”

“Especially Arden” interjected Nolan with a grin. “I’ve been trying for years. But jokes aside, what can you tell us about dungeons?”

“Before we go to that, there’s context you’ll need to know. You all already have some magic so you’re aware of what mana is. What you don’t know is that prolonged exposure to mana can have weird effects. For example, our world has wild animals. Squirrels, rabbits, bears, etc. But if you take a rabbit and keep in a cage next to where someone is practicing fire based spells, over time some of that fire aspected mana will start to accumulate in the rabbit. And if this goes on for a long enough time, the rabbit could evolve into a fire rabbit with it’s own magic spells. Or it could mate with another rabbit and have offspring that are flame aspected. Mana likes to be near similar mana. So the more fire magic done near the rabbit, the greater the quantities of fire mana it will absorb.

This is why pest control in cities is usually a priority. The last thing you want is rats that live near a kitchen to start to draw on the fire mana coming from the ovens. Then you end up with rats that can throw fire bolt spells and your town burns down. Are you with me so far?”

“Yes, but I have questions,” Arden replied.

“Save them until the end, please. Now, if there isn’t anything nearby to absorb the trace mana, then the fire mana would start to condense around itself. If this happened for a long enough period of time it could produce a fire elemental. Obviously this would take far far longer than simply imbuing animals with magic.

“And finally, if for whatever reason the conditions to form an elemental aren’t right, then the mana will continue to condense and eventually form what is known as a dungeon core. These are essentially a gem. The color is dependent on the types of mana it is made of. The size of the gem depends on its level. A tier one dungeon core would be pretty small. Dungeon cores have a form of intelligence but they’re not actually sapient.

“When a dungeon core forms it begins to absorb mana from the surrounding area until it can eventually create an entrance to its dungeon. The actual dungeon is in a pocket dimension. Remember this, you can’t dig you way into or out of a dungeon. You’d be amazed at how many people try it anyway. Once the entrance to the pocket dimension is created, the core itself goes through the entrance and starts to build its dungeon. The core will populate the dungeon with bests, monsters, traps, etc. No one is sure how the dungeons decide on what to put in there or what limits they have. We do know that as living creatures venture into the dungeon it will attempt to kill them. Some people believe that the dungeon core earns experience just like every other creature. Some believe that it only absorbs the remnant mana. Either way, the more it gets, the bigger it will grow and the smarter it will become.

“The dungeon core can be destroyed which will of course destroy the dungeon. Some teams spend their lives going around and destroying cores as the experience earned from doing so is rumored to be phenomenal. The core can also be captured and moved to a new location. Doing this would allow you a measure of control over the dungeon which can have massive benefits. Some kingdoms have dungeons they have specifically set up to train their armies. A number of powerful wizards have created a symbiotic relationships with dungeon cores where they’ve built their mage towers inside a dungeon and regularly provide it whatever it is that it wants and in return the dungeon serves as a layer of protection.

“Now, all that said, I must ask again. Are you absolutely certain that the hobgoblin was lying about searching for a dungeon core. Dungeons grant experience for the kills made inside, but they also serve as opportunities to gain money and equipment. In some dungeons you can even mine for rare metals. This would be a huge deal for a tribe to possess. I don’t think I need to tell you how bad this would be for Wildemill and the surrounding area.”

The room fell silent after Helen stopped lecturing and everyone worked to process all the implications of what was said.

Eventually Arden spoke up, “I had my [Dome of Truth] spell active. I’ve leveled it up enough that now I can have it allow people to lie and simply let me know, rather than strangling them. Nolan asked the hobgoblin where they had been and why so many goblins were carrying shovels. The hobgoblin replied that they had been hunting for a dungeon that they believed was to the north of them. When he said that, my spell let me know that he was lying.”

The mayor nodded in thought for a moment before replying, “That does not mean there isn’t a dungeon in the area. He could have been lying about it being to the north, couldn’t he?”

“I suppose that is a possibility. But the goblins were coming from the north.”

“If he was lying, what do you think he was trying to hide?”

Arden motioned to Nolan who took over, “We think they were digging a tunnel into the town. In recent weeks we’ve made the surrounding countryside inhospitable to them so we think they’re going to try and go under the walls. That said, we also wondered if they were doing something with the river that would cause it to flood but it seemed like to massive a job for the crew we encountered.”

“These are reasonable conclusions. I do agree that tunneling under the wall is most likely. However, the enormity of the problem that will arise if they really do find a dungeon core requires that we investigate it just to be on the safe side.”

“Understood. We’ll start looking for any signs of digging in the area. Hopefully that will lead us to whatever their plan is.”

Hazel asked, “If it is a dungeon core and we could it and bring it here, that would be a boon for Wildemill right? It would help you rebuild.”

Mayor Helen nodded her head, “It would be for a short while. Then word would spread that we had a dungeon and our Lord would inevitably send troops here to take possession of it. It would be best for Wildemill if you could find the dungeon and destroy it. This would also provide quite a big of experience for all of you as well.”

As the mayor said this, the party all got an alert:

New Quest: Mayor Helen fears there goblins may be searching for dungeon or tunneling into Wildemill. Determine which is correct and stop them.

Rewards: Unknown

The party all smiled and closed the alert.

“How would we go about finding a dungeon core, though?” Nolan queried.

“If a dungeon core is so small, couldn’t we just put it in our pocket or something and not tell anyone about it?” Willow asked.

The mayor smiled at the two talking over one another, “Normally I’d say one at a time, but these answers are related. To find a dungeon you look for an area without mana. One were it feels like the air is trying to pull the very mana from your body. In the middle of that area will be the dungeon core or an entrance to a dungeon. And that feeling is why you can’t just put one in your pocket to hide it. Everyone nearby would feel it.”

Willow thought for a moment before asking, “What if it’s in our packs?”

“BOOM” said Arden.

“Why would it explode in your pack?” Christi asked.

“I was just joking,” Arden said. “But our packs are spatial containers. Would that not cause problems?”

Helen shook her head, “No, actually that’s the best way to transport them. Putting a dungeon core inside a spatial bag will cause the core to go into a type of hibernation.”

“Maybe we could do that,” Willow said. “Then save the dungeon for later.”

Arden raised a hand as he spoke, “Can we back up a bit? I have a question about mana and animals becoming imbued. What if we left a bunch of rabbit in cages next to an area where priests and clerics were regularly healing people? Would the rabbits become imbued with healing magic?”

“Yes, they would. But to the rabbits, you would be the enemies so what good would them having healing powers do? Then you’d have to worry about having a pest problem that could heal itself.”

“Still, seems like that would have some advantages. What if I just cast loads of healing spells next to Arlo and pushed healing mana into him. If he eventually obtained a healing spell, he could help watch over Willow.”

“That could happen. But in the case of companion animals, it would be easier and much quicker to just buy the desired spell scroll and have them learn it.”

“Arlo can learn magic spells?” Willow questioned.

The mayor shrugged, “If his mental stat is high enough and he wishes to do so, then yes. Now, a question of my own. How’d you leave with one wolf and come back with two?”

Willow excitedly told the story of how her goddess had brought their other pet to them for Ewan and how, even though Ewan wasn’t of age he now had a companion. After that, the group continued to lob question after question at Mayor Helen for as long as she was willing to hang around and answer them. Christi was starting to answer more as well, having finally accepted that she could dislike the gods and still enjoy the company of people the gods sent to help.