It took Bonny nearly two months to find an excuse to lead a proper team out to the dungeon, but it was finally time. She'd recruited a local hedge mage, "in case the dungeon had any magical traps", and gotten one of the orc thugs the Boss sent over registered as an official adventurer(and bought him proper armour and weapons on her own dime, as she had been sure to include in her reports), and now she was ready. Sure, most groups had more than three members for a job like this, but most groups didn't have someone like her to lead them, now did they?

As they approached the dungeon, Bonny could hear her little excuse still working away- thwack, thwack, thwack. The little robot was still toiling away, trying to chop down a tree. Signaling the others to be quiet, she led them wide around it, and pretended to be unsure where the actual entrance was, before leading their little group inside.

The first traps were unchanged, but the deception demanded she atleast pretend not to already know where they were, and besides, the addition of Spyders meant she didn't know when they'd go off now, anyways. As she past through the first few rooms, however, she started to feel uneasy. The dungeon felt almost... cold.

If she felt uneasy, however, her pet mage- Colm, if she remembered correctly- was positively terrified. With each step, she could see his eyes dart a little faster, and his hands shake a little more as he made sign after sign in the air. Clearly, they needed to talk, but they'd need somewhere safe first. Crawling forward, she entered the chest room, and, after picking the lock, opened the lid just enough to "spot" the trigger inside, and hook a length of wire to it. Falling back into the previous room, she pulled sharply- triggering the cave in trap safely, and revealing the hidden passage she'd seen so briefly the last time she was here.

Stepping into the room, she made a show of checking for more traps, before turning to her allies. "Looks safe for now," she said, "but it seems you don't agree, Colm. I brought you allong for your insight, so I'd appreciate if you'd share what's got you so spooked."

Looking at him properly, it struck her once again that Colm really was the most stereotypical mage you could get- a little too old to pass as young, a little too young to pass as wise, and a little too scrawny to pass as fit, the only thing that told you he might be worth his own weight was the gnarled staff he clutched in his left hand, and the supposedly contractually obligatory pointed hat he wore on his head. His eyes were sunken from late nights reading books, his complexion pale and unhealthy, and his clothes fit tightly enough to show just how often he had forgotten to eat while deep in study. The man was clearly uncomfortable being out and about like this, but eventually he found his voice.

"Ah, well, it's just... a young dungeon like this, making it through two rooms, it should be paying attention to us by now, and, um, I can't even detect healthy mana flows." Bonny's eyes widened, and Colm hurriedly continued, to cut off her fears. "Ah, no, no! It's not gone, it's just... weak, sickly. Like a low pulse are a bad cough. Something must have damaged it- if it was an invader, it wouldn't have defenders still about, but that only leaves a few options. Either it overspent on mana- something most dungeons learn not to do before they reach three rooms, or it's hurt itself somehow."

The little mage paused, marking new runes, before drawing in a huge breath, as if trying to smell something. "Nothing unusual in the mana flow, so it's not mana poisoning, thank the Gods. Ah, don't tell my boss I said that. Hmm..." he paused, as if trying to decide how much he could press, before continuing, "I... don't suppose I could convince you two to guard me while I check my notes? It's just, I brought a book on the growth and health of dungeons, so I could give as accurate a report as possible, and I might be able to find something in it if you're amenable...?"

Bonny looked at Arlo, her 'adventuring companion', and he shrugged his broad shoulders, before stepping closer and turning his back, eyes drawn between the three entrances to the room. Turning back to Colm, she nodded. "Find out what you need to. If we can fix this, we need to do it before we leave. This is too important to the entire town."

Smiling for the first time she had seen him, he pulled out his pack and dug out, before pulling out a book titled in the so-called 'secret wizarding tongue', and started rapidly flipping pages. Giving him time, she walked over to Arlo, eager to accomplish something while he worked. "I'm going to scout the other rooms, see what we're dealing with. If I don't come back, fall back and make sure Arlo gets his report in. I want this place secured, one way or another," starting off as Arlo grunted an affirmative.

Slipping into the top chamber, she found the chamber empty of threats, with only a chest, and, at the back, a sparkling red gem, near perfect, bound in bronze- and marred by a single crack running through its core. This was more than convenient- it meant they wouldn't have to explore the rest of the dungeon to solve whatever the problem was, once Colm figured it out. Popping the chest open, she took stock of the loot- and especially a carved shell depicting her with a deer.

"Shit."

Her mind raced- while this showed the dungeon had made a connection between her and its income, it also meant others might be able to make that connection, too. Feeding a dungeon might not be illegal, strictly speaking, but it would make her story suspicious- she had to hide this until she could feed the dungeon officially. And, thinking about it, she had the perfect excuse, now- after all, as the dungeon's discoverer, she'd have a certain degree of authority, and she could easily request a temporary hold on adventurers to let the dungeon heal. Feed it a little to keep it healthy- yeah, this could work.

Climbing down, she saw the others still doing their duties, so she scouted the other rooms- to the left, she found two Gremlins- hardly unexpected- working in a mostly unworked, "natural" cave. Easily able to avoid their noticed, she looked for signs of their work room being more advanced, than expected, but it seemed fairly basic at the moment. Clearly, the dungeon hadn't invested heavily in this just yet. To the right, however, she found something much more interesting- four clockwork soldiers, marching back and forth through a wide chamber with large, stone pillars lining the sides. Besides being a room that would be easy enough to sneak through, thanks to the clanking and metal footsteps of the soldiers covering any sounds, it also showed the dungeon had grown enough to start expanding its forces, and might even be close to making a new chamber.

While she was happy about this revelation, however, she was also happy because she had come prepared for precisely this scenario. Waiting for the soldiers to turn around, she crawled out and set up a trap of her own- a small explosive designed to release a wave of sticky, corrosive goo, before hiding and waiting for the soldiers to return. Being, predictably, predictable as clockwork, the soldiers returned just as her explosive triggered, the good sinking into their joints and slowing their motion. Instantly on alert, they spread out to try to find her, but quickly fells still as complicated components shattered under the stress of moving suddenly immobile joints.

Of course, while all this was happening, Bonny was no longer even in the room, having returned to check on Colm, who finally seemed ready to make his guesses, gesturing to his book as he starts to lecture, "Well, there's three options the way I see it. Either the dungeon accidentally dropped something on its core- unlikely- it tried to force a summon it couldn't sustain, or it forced mana to do something it wasn't able to. In the first case, it'll heal on its own, but the second and third need outside help, especially with us disabling some of its defenses. If we bring it a few animals- maybe a deer or two- it should be able to recover."

Bonny relaxes, relieved beyond what she expected, her dreams secure once more. Nodding sharply, she waits for Colm to pack up his books, before leading them into the pillar room, collecting mechanisms from the bodies of the soldiers, before ordering a retreat. After exiting the dungeon, she sends the others back to report, but states her intention to feed the dungeon before going back- after all, the longer it spends disabled, the more likely something could disable it entirely.

With Arlo ensuring Colm hurries on his way back, Bonny realizes she's almost grateful the dungeon managed to hurt itself- if it didn't owe her before, it would surely realize it did now. This could only make coming to an agreement easier, and it gave an excuse for why the dungeon might associate her with hunting. Drawing her bow and setting out to track down a few deer. Despite the ups and downs of this trip, Bonny's confidence was only growing as she got closer and closer to accomplishing her goals.