Dungeon Dive Begins

Selvina had called Yuri, Thelsia, Usagi, and Lithera to her office; and it looked like Althana decided to tag along at some point; she really didn’t have much to do anyway, after her plans for the Atelier and Bath House had been submitted she really couldn’t do more than wait, and maybe take a few jobs from the guild, keeping your personal finances up while staying at an inn usually wasn’t all that easy. This actually seemed like a decent team. Selvina herself wouldn’t show signs of visible pregnancy for quite some time, but she could still feel the lives of her pups growing within her.

“I called you all here,” said Selvina, “because we got reports of a new dungeon appearing near this area, I’m sending all of you in to investigate it. Any spoils you find, you can keep for yourselves; any additional individuals you find are to be brought to me on the return trip, assuming they are still breathing. This is just a cursory inspection, so if you find more than 6 or 7 floors to the dungeon are a possibility, return here so that I can see about getting word on how to approach the situation. You are all capable individuals, and your specialties should help to shore up each others weaknesses. Also, most of you have been approved as being in the same party.”

“Okay, why choose us,” inquired Yuri, “don’t you have someone better suited for this?”

“All of those individuals and teams are indisposed for the time being,” said Selviana diplomatically, “and we need to keep a certain individual a bit further from here for a while.”

“Sounds like you got word on the arrival of a resource caravan getting in soon,” said Thelsia with quick understanding.

“Yes, and we need to keep our secret male out of sight from them, for the time being, “said Selvina, “pack up and get ready to leave,” she handed Thelsia a map, “I’ve marked the only known entrance to the dungeon on this map.”

“We’ll head out as soon as possible,” said Thelsia.

“I think I’m going to need some help preparing for this sort of thing,” said Althana, “I’ve never done something like this before.”

“I have,” said Yuri, drawing the attention of all the women, “in games back home, intellectually, I know what I need for these sorts of excursions; I’ve just never done it physically before.”

******************************************************************************

3 hours later, the party was all at the dungeon’s entrance. The entrance of the dungeon was a raised red stone in the middle of the forest with a roughly cut hole and steps leading down into the ground. The fact that it took them that long to hike to the location was a testament to the lack of definition for possible routes, Thelsia took a note of that before they all passed through the entrance. The group filed down the rough-hewn stairs, with their bags on their shoulders, and just as the last of the group was six or seven steps down, the sound of the rock could be heard and the light from outside started to fade. That explained how the dungeon hadn’t really been found until recently.

*******************************************************************************

As soon as the rock door was completely closed, sconces on the wall that didn’t seem to be there a moment ago lit up and filled the stairway with their light. After almost 3 minutes of walking on the stairs, they finally entered the first room. The room was practically barren, only a broken piece of furniture that might have been a chair or small table was in the right corner furthest from the entrance.

Three doorways were leading out of the room. One to the right, one to the left, and one straight ahead. They all took some time to decide how to progress.