Seems I'm not the only one though.

As you draw nearer to the entrance you begin hearing noises, wood hitting on stone and shouting. Worried you quicken your pace and round the last corner, gaining a line of sight.

A man in dirty and greyish clothing wields a long stick of carved wood against a fox-like creature that looks to be on fire. Now that you are closer, you can hear the steps of the man, the leaps of the fox and crackle of the flames. As you finally reach the cave you receive the last confusing part of the puzzle, your elemental standing motionlessly in the entrance.

"HALT!", you boom (as good as you can at least), holding your sword in one hand and the torch in the other, "what is going on here?". "Uhh, well Boss, yer see", beginns the man, "I, uh, heard o' yer an' was gonna-"

Fire-Fox wants to join your dungeon.
Accept Fire-Fox into your dungeon?

a pop-up window, well... pops up before your eyes, the fox, a Fire-Fox, how interesting, wants to join you. You muster the fox, who meets your gaze, eventually you answer, "Ok then, I accept you.". You direct your attention back to the man and look at him questioningly, bringing him to continue, "Uhh, I, I was gonna get up 'ere an' ask if yer could use one more man, me.". "Ookay, and why the fight?" you implore, "well I thaw tha' Fox-thingy an' I though' I could give you tha' pelt, as a gift. I, uh, didn' get 'im though.". The man is a bit difficult to understand (feel free to blame it on me since I don't really know how to spell in an accent, I literally just planned to give this guy an "accent", I haven't planned on a specific one), but you think you understood everything, he wants to join you and wanted to gift the foxes pelt to you, not knowing it also wanted to join you. "Ok, why not, you're accepted as well", with that said you turn towards dungeon and worker expecting to have to talk to the latter as well, but he has already gone back to his work and you make after him inside, "follow me.".

Inside you explain the basic train of thought behind the dungeon to your new minions, the fox seems to understand quite well but can't talk, the man, a bandit who used to be part of a nearby gang but abandoned them when he somehow heard about you, can talk but is difficult to understand and seems to be the "slower" one of the two, he still grasps what you explain though. Afterwards you take a look at the, still only planned, secret door. The requirements of stone and crude iron are now met, leaving only rope, which you can luckily craft within a few minutes from the remaining tall gras you didn't need for your mat. Now, that the only things missing to build your dungeon are a bit more stone and some wood you decide to talk to the elemental again, instructing it, or him?, to not build the upper floor for now and also not build any torches (their holders however are fine), thus the worker will be able to keep going for quite some time.

With building taken care of for now you leave the elemental to just that and invest a bit more time getting to know your new acquaintances.

• The Fire-Fox definitely has some brains, he might not be able to talk, but he can certainly read and comprehend his character sheet, communicating you the key point, he's level three at the moment. His appearance is very much like that of a fox, only that the normaly reddish or orange parts of the fur are acctually strongly colored flames, normally small and barely distinguishable from normal fur, only when he is agitated, like in a fight, do they become a bit bigger and more noticeable, giving him quite literally the appearance of a fox on fire. It is also noteworthy that the flames are surprisingly cool for a fire, at least when he's calm. In fights Fire-foxes rely on their claws, teeth and brains, like normal foxes, only that they also have the flames surrounding them as a weapon and may even use some magic, allowing them to shoot small gusts of flame, you can't deny that makes you a bit jealous. It seems the foxes reasons to join you were curiosity, and the hope to find someone who's willing to occasionally cuddle a bit, something with which you gladly help, his fur is surprisingly fluffly and soft, at least now that he isn't in a fight. In fact it's so amazing that eventually even the bandit starts cautiously petting him.
• The man, or bandit: his head is covered in long dark-brown hair and an equally wild beard, this, together with the weathered visible face that is dominated by a large nose gives him a hardened looking face. Although the smile that sneaks itself on it as he pets the fox looks amazing on it, it basically transforms his whole appearance, at least for as long as it's there. As already mentioned he's not exactly the brightest man in the world, but with a bit of time overcomes his problems, an example for this is his character sheet, it may take him some time and his finger to read it, but he makes it, relaying some useful information, his level is three as well, he has the same bandit themed feats as you though no others, and he has a bit of skill with polearm weapons (10). His equipment consists of nothing more than what was already mentioned, simple greyish clothing and a simple stick carved from wood, it could be called a spear if it only had a tip. Before he joined you he was part of a small group of bandits living in the forest, robbing the occasional NPC and often being utterly anihilated by passing heroes. He decided to join you because you have your own dungeon and are supposedly very powerful, so he hopes for more safety and success in raiding after joining you.

None of them seemed to have a name so far. While you were speaking with your new companions you subconciously decided that you really should go to the forest as well today, not only to collect wood, but also for more food, there are more mouths to feed now after all. You also decide to take the Fire-Fox and bandit with you, they wouldn't be much help here, as opposed to in the forest.