Copper vs. Bronze

“You're just signed up, and only copper rated. This is a Bronze dungeon.” The redheaded guild master cringe, “which is a shame, because the dungeon is due for a cleaning.”

‘We're new to the Delver's Guild,’ I improvise telepathically, ‘but we've worked together many times, and have some experience under our belts already. Is there perhaps some method by which we can count that?’

The apparent guildmatron pauses, “You're telepathic?”

‘As I said, we have some experience under our belts,’ I confirm.

The woman purses her lips, “Well, if I just trusted that people are good when they say so, I would have a lot more in the way of deaths on my conscience. I can promote you, but are you up for some tests?”

“Oh yeah,” Alice laughs, “Bring it on.”

“All right. To start, I'll summon an opponent,” she begins casting.

‘Summon Monster IV’ the voice in my head informs me as I Counterspell her.

When nothing happens, the woman frowns, “Which of you did that?” I have my proxy raise her hand, and the guildmatron continues, “Good job, being able to counter a fourth level spell passes you. So stop interfering. I need to see the rest of the team in action too. So…” she begins again, and this time I let it happen. The spell brings a Celestial Dire Boar, and she continues, “Okay, now, when I say ‘go’, I want the rest of you to kill it. Three, two, one, Go.”

Brian leaps at it, the claws of his Eidolon extended, and he rips into it four times, causing it to collapse and fade out before it ever had a chance to move. Ah, the joys of being able to share the Pouncing Fury spell via the Share Spells teamwork feat… and a companion who has enough claws to make it work well.

Looking at the spot where her summon used to be, the redhead takes a breath and looks up at the four of us, “Is everyone else in your group in this ballpark?”

‘Yes,’ I confirm telepathically as the others don't so verbally.

The green-eyed woman nods, “Well, good news, I can promote you to Iron, then. You should have no trouble woth this dungeon…” she sits down at her desk, pulls out some iron plates, and runs them through her engraving machine as she takes notes in a book, “I'm bit authorized for Silver promotions, but I'm pretty sure you're at least that. You shouldn't have any issues with a bronze-rated dungeon.” She shakes copper locks, “So yeah, go for it.”

Charles pauses, “Umm… we haven't done an actual delve before….”

The matron pauses, “Right, which is why we did the tests. Okay, so you go through hose doors,” she points at the extra thick doors that are barred on this side, “and I lock it behind you. The dungeon entrance is in that room. you go down there, kill everything, pick up whatever loot you fancy, come back, knock calmly four times, pause, knock three times, and then I unbar the door. You give me an account of what you killed down there, and I pay your team the standard fee for cleaning a Bronze dungeon. Leave the dungeon heart alone, we do NOT want to have to re-seed this one.” She considers, “It will look like a big glowing gemstone embedded in the wall, ceiling, or floor. The light pulses at about the rate of a calm heartbeat. It's fragile and important, so don't touch it. It will always be guarded by a stronger monster than normal. This dungeon tends towards demons. Nothing you find down there is redeemable, kill them all, no matter how pretty, handsome, or harmless they look. Alwa6s keep an eye out for traps, there's no rhyme or reason to what goes where. Understand?”

“Knock is four, pause, three. Kill everything except the heart, take whatever we want, watch for traps. Got it,” Brian smiles, “and thank you.”

The woman smiles, “You're welcome. Don't die down there.”

Charles chuckles as he removes the bar and opens the door, “We won't.”

We head in, and fond a stone masonry spiral staircase heading down, which we follow….