Trish watched wide eyed as Pete and Shirley arrived back in the dungeon riding one of Mary’s early experimental sea Wyverns. “What level are you Mary?”

« Dunno, why? »

“You don’t know! How is that possible.”

« Oh I tol’ Bluey to not bother me an’ just dump the atrib points into int then will then wis then luck an’ repeat an the skill ones into research an’ tinkering, err... I mean DNA manipulation an’ creature creation. »

“But... but... but...” ejaculated Trisha scandalised. “What about creatures, you should get more options at level five then ten.”

« After the Cat incident I just tol’ Bluey to surprise me wi’ the proviso that I was free to reject his gift. »

“Wait, what, you call the System Bluey and he allows it!” Trisha exclaimed.

Trisha gained the distinct impression that her friend and partner was regarding her with uncomprehending bemusement.

“Umm... do you mind if I check your log?”

« Sure go ahead, some of the earlier messages will probably have been overwritten by now. »

Armed with Mary’s permission Trisha dived into a veritable sea of blue and emerged dazed and bemused some hours later.

“Mary, what do you think Bluey means when he says ‘it’s a rollover’.”

« Usually means nobody’s won the lottery that week an’ the prize is doubled, why? »

“Well, when you hit level twenty you must have done or said something that Bluey took as acceptance and your second monster class thanks to those rollover things is Beastfolk and you are now on another rollover.”

« That’s nice, thanks Bluey. »

« You’re Welcome – Mother of Monsters »

“...”

« Cheers Bluey that’s a cool beep title. »

« ... »

“...”

* * *

Mary’s rats arrived at Drakoton in good time and hid their catamaran that if scaled up would not have been out of place in one of Earth’s marinas carefully. They easily infiltrated Drakoton and entered the courthouse later that same night eliciting the comment “always knew that lot were a bunch of rats” from a passing night watchman.

After perusing the available written records the infiltrators soon had the names of those responsible for the farce of a trial that freed the pirates.

After lying low for the day, romancing some of the local rodent beauties they resumed their task at dusk. Four luxurious mansions were infiltrated one after the other, two watchdogs were slain via poisoned thorns launched via blowpipes.

They had the names they had been sent to find by the end of the second night. Now there was only one, well two things left to do. One more day of romancing the local beauties and it was time. The leader prepared his weapons and sent his subordinate to prepare their catamaran for a fast getaway.

The rats entered Ruutus’ mansion one hour after the fall of night and found him sporting with two young ladies all three in a state of undress as is appropriate for such activities. The leader awaited the ideal moment patiently and when the three participants cried out in real and pretend passion quickly puffed two poisoned thorns one after the other, and pausing only long enough to check his aim – ass and balls – left the scene with his companions. They were just hitting the public road when the shrill screams started.

The Nightwatch had barely responded to the dastardly assassination when a small catamaran flying all sail and with a billowing spinnaker raced away from shore skimming over the waves heading for home.

* * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

Sreecator led their prayers that night and Creevar walked in their dreams that night. The next morning they all spent a good hour meditating on the honour their God had granted them.

“Well the news isn’t good, Azurea was – careless – we attacked the wrong dungeon last time, even asking for confirmation Azurea...” grumbled Harrassan. “So do we find the Kobold dungeon and verify that it hasn’t gone rogue due to...”

“Our actions because of Azurea’s.... carelessness.” Interjected Warminor, “mind you I still feel some resentment.”

“But it was only rightly defending itself... we will have to forgive it, it only did what we would have done in its place,” stated Sreecator unhappily.

“You’re right brother. It is difficult but I will forgive it,” agreed Harrassan glumly. “I suggest we return to Arsouk and see if we can pick up any news of new dungeons and commission a scry to locate Hell’s Mouth’s new location.”

* * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

Erekosë was soaring high in the evening sky when he saw the group of humans approaching his queen’s realm. Taking care to approach them from the East he was able to discern that the one in the lead was the goatherd that had gifted them with that tasty goat. Unfortunately there was no sign of any goats this time. It would seem adventurers had arrived and would come calling on the morrow.

He rode a fading thermal high into the sky before making use of the gathering darkness to slip back into the dungeon, via his queen’s escape route with the news.

After Rosht had pointed at the cave and the small rather feeble stream issuing from it the group of adventurers had briefly ventured into the cave and then withdrawn to set up camp for the night. They agreed that it looked and felt promising.

The next day after a hearty breakfast the adventurers ventured into the caverns all rather relieved to be far from Rosht’s rather penetrating aroma.

The first level didn’t offer much of a challenge, the presence of small escape tunnels was unusual, the way the dungeon’s denizens often ignored their tank’s taunts was more worrying. They failed to complete the second level due to the dungeon’s unusual tactics and the presence of flying kobolds at least one of which was a mage.

After another day in their camp they divided their spoils and satisfied they left to return to report to their guildmaster. A nice little nature aligned dungeon with kobolds.

Rosht was absolutely delighted with his prize for the discovery of the dungeon, twenty-five gold nobles! Rosht was no fool so Frazd the banker had another visitor who invested twenty nobles in his low-risk portfolio. Rosht was not surprised that after he left every window and door of Frazd’s establishment was thrown open. It often happened when he left.

* * *

Sandrinna and Darkmoon were studying her status screens, she had just achieved level five and had several important decisions to make, they were also worried that her status screen showed Sandrinna was currently unaligned with any deity.

But first they chose Lizardmen as their second monster type from the updated list offered by the System. Then they distributed their available attribute and skill points.

Then they queried the System as to the divine alignment stat. On learning of Azurea’s hostility they both felt a frisson of fear.

« Hel-Arlizzy has offered his patronage, do you wish to come under his purview – yes/no »

« Yes! » exclaimed Sandrinna, and her update was completed.

* * * INTERLUDE 3 * * *

Mac and Mary stared at each other as each tried to digest the fact that they weren’t alone. Then they both blurted out a few disjointed sentences at cross purposes and fell silent.

Their attitude and actions drew the attention of AnnMarie, after all the sight of another female paying attention to Mac was bound to arouse her interest.

“Hey wait! You two are seeing blue boxes!” AnnMarie exclained.

Mac and Mary turned – somewhat defensively – to face AnnMarie. “Yeah...!” “Yes!”

AnnMarie stared at them stupefied then noting their defensive attitude blurted, “Hey wait, it’s just that I thought I was going mad when ...” she waved a hand vaguely in front of her face, “... I started seeing them.”

They packed their gear in silence and retired to a local coffee shop for a somewhat hesitant exchange of views which only stopped when their waiter asked what MMORPG they were playing because that ocean ranger class sounded cool.