Robin winced as he massaged his feet. A hot stone, enchanted with a simple heating charm, glowed cheerily in the fireplace at his back. It lacked the crackle and flicker and comfort of a real fire, but the heat was welcome on his aching muscles. He was almost tempted to use a [Healing Note] to remove the last of his discomfort, but held off. They were still camped in dangerous territory, even if Ruprecht’s demesne around them meant the dungeon should be acting as a highly effective early warning system.

She exploded into flaming butterflies? That is not a magical effect I can say I’ve encountered before.

Ruprecht was taking quite the interest in their encounter. The rest of the party was interested as well, but not to the degree the dungeon was. They’d all heard of wild magic before, in stories and guildhall whispers at least.

‘Wild magic can take almost any form at all.’ Drev was pacing near the western wall. “It’s a wondrous and dangerous thing.”

‘It turned the hamlet of Thrommlet into pudding,’ Vance said from the chair where he was paring his nails with a deceptively sharp piece of paper.

‘That’s an old bard’s tale,’ Drev said, dismissing the thought with a flick of his fingers.

‘There’s documentation in the library,’ Vance countered.

‘Before this turns into an absolutely fascinating argument,’ Jhess interrupted, ‘can we get back to the point?’

‘Which is?’ Robin wasn’t quite sure anymore.

‘That we’re going to have to be much more careful luring patrols here if all of their mages explode like that when stressed,’ Savra said.

Leave it to the diviner to keep an eye on salient bits of information.

‘It’s wild magic,’ Drev protested, ‘they can’t all do that! It would be too predictable.’

‘True,’ Vance agreed.

‘Just my luck,’ Robin muttered.

Perhaps the wand can provide some additional insight.

The rest of the party looked at Robin expectantly. The bard sighed and plucked the wand from his storage space. Might as well let Ruprecht have it his way. It’s not like he hadn’t already exhausted his creativity and his [Bardic Lore] trying to activate the thing. Nothing had worked. Robin didn’t think it worked without the collar.

‘Here.’ He tossed it to the ground.

The landed with a bit of a ringing sound from the metal used in its construction. The party watched as it glimmered for a moment, then dissolved into the ground as Ruprecht ‘ate’ it.

There was a curious lightness that came though the air then, as the dungeon’s attention was absorbed almost completely by the new acquisition. Jhess passed out another round of drinks and Robin jazzed them all up with [Lesser Phantasm] cooling them with [Legerdemain].

Magic was awesome.

‘What concerns me more than the possibility of more wild mages,’ Vance said after a long pull at his drink, ‘is that we have yet to see much of the clerical sort with the patrols.’

‘Isn’t that a good thing?’ Jhess asked. ‘Less healing, easier fights.’

‘Possibly,’ Vance said, ‘but otherwise the units we’ve faced so far have been remarkably balanced. Almost like adventuring parties or military patrols. Something here feels off. Like there’s a missing element.’

‘I agree,’ Savra chimed in. ‘It is hard to see anything in this city, for some reason, but what fragments of visions that have come to me point to something important happening.’

‘What have you seen?’ Jhess leaned in.

It was unlike the rogue to take an interest, but Savra had helped them sort out true treasure form false, so perhaps Jhess associated the seeress’s visions with wealth.

‘As I said, it was mostly fragments, but some images do recur.’ Savra frowned. ‘I have seen a cracked mirror filled with mist and something moving within the vapours. I have seen a rotating spiral of teeth, and an endless expanse of stars. I have seen an iron fist with rust-red nails, clenching spasmodically. What any of it means, I am not sure. My lady has been enigmatic of late, even for her.’

A debate sparked up amongst the party as to what the images might mean, but before Robin could dive in, he got a hint of his own, likely stemming from that last, import-laden image.

New Quest! [Break the Iron Fist]

Your companion has had visions laden with symbolism that to you warns of Urkhan’s presence here in the city of Tarin-Tiran! Investigate to see if your instincts are correct. If they are, do everything you can to destabilise or destroy the grip of the god in this city in exchange for some of the secret knowledge you seek. Break the power of the hjuncta or drive it from the city if you can!

Reward(s): Increased enmity of the god Urkhan, secret knowledge hoarded by the deity’s faithful and kept from those who would reclaim it, and some useful consumable magic items.

‘What do you think, Robin?’

‘What?’ He blinked away the status screen he’d been staring at.

‘What do you think any of it means,’ Jhess repeated. ‘Stop staring off into thin air! You’re a bard, you should have some lore at your fingertips that might put some of this into context.’

‘Urkhan,’ he said, ‘the iron fist is Urkhan. I’ve had enough run-ins with his goons so far that I can tell what his touch on a place feels like. I’d lay a large wager that we’ll find the hobgoblin hjuncta is under the control of one of his priests or warlords.’

‘It’s possible,’ Vance conceded, ‘the imagery does fit. Savra?’

‘I suspect our bard is correct. he does, after all, have the experience he claims.’ A small smile played about the seeress’s face. ‘And I have reason to trust him. The goddess likes him, after all.’

‘Far be it for me to question the taste of a divine being,’ Jhess said, ‘but has she met him?’

‘I’d protest, but I don’t think it would do any good,’ Robin said, instead heading to claim another drink.

Fascinating.

Ruprecht’s return interrupted the conversation. Everyone turned to the central well, where Ruprecht’s core—and thus his physical body—were located. It only seemed polite.

Oh. Not the wand. I was making an observation as to your fleshy social dynamics. Not something I get to see up close terribly often.

‘And what did you find about the wand?’ Robin interjected, attempting to head off a lecture from Ruprecht or a series of threats from Jhess.

It’s next to useless without the collar, to begin with. This is certainly a case of a singular item with two components. Possibly three, but I can’t be sure without similarly assimilating a collar.

‘That’s a pity.’ Drev grimaced. ‘I’d been hoping it might have use in and of itself. We could use every advantage we can find.’

Fetch me a collar, and perhaps we’ll see what can be done.

‘Are you able to get a sense of how the item functions after assimilating it?’ Vance was looking on with keen interest.

To a degree. I can see some of the basic runic structures that comprise the enchantment, and follow the channels of energy. It was created using a process that I don’t fully understand, so while I can replicate it exactly, and make several copies, I can’t alter or refine it in any way.

Ruprecht sounded incredibly frustrated by that fact.

There are some similarities, too, between the runic structures I can see and the ones that are holding the locking mechanism down here in the well in place.

‘What does that mean?’ Jhess asked.

‘It means we need to lure a mage to Ruprecht properly, so our friend can discover more,’ Savra opined.

That would be most helpful, yes. Attempting to assimilate this mechanism is consuming most of my energies. I’d prefer to expand out a bit more so we have more warning in the event of an attack, but once the process has begun I must continue it.

Robin suspect that Ruprecht would like enough energy to begin spawning some mimic servants as well, but he kept that supposition to himself.

Jhess would freak.

‘We need a better approach, then,’ he said instead. ‘So far we’ve just been wandering and trying to pull whatever patrol we find that looks the right strength after us. We need to scout, properly. We should know where the main camp is, what order their patrols go out in or which routes they tend to follow. That will allow us to lay safer traps and better lures.’

‘That sounds like a lot of work for me,’ Jhess complained.

‘I can help as well,’ Robin countered, ‘and I’m sure our resident seeress can aid in narrowing down the important areas quickly and efficiently.’

Savra acknowledged the point by inclining her head, but then she raised a warning hand.

‘I can, though I should reiterate that for some reason my sight is…fuzzy, here in this city, and I do not fully know why. Perhaps there are old anti-scrying wards that are blocking my connection to the goddess or warping my skills in ways unexpected. It has not made things impossible, but the difficulty should not be underestimated.’

‘Trust but verify,’ Robin said airily. ‘Following your lead still gives us a direction to search and will cut down on decision making time. We’ll just have to be very careful checking our work. No assumptions.’

Robin sent mental instructions to Rerebos. The little dragon was a sharp scout in his own right, and had several advantages that the bipedal members of Robin’s little adventuring gang lacked.

Wings were only one of them.

It may be that absorbing the collar will greatly reduce the proportion of energies I need to dedicate to assimilating the locking mechanism, if the two are as related as I hope. The sooner that is accomplished the more I may be able to aid you and to shore up our defences.

Robin suspected the dungeon was also keen to expand his influence before the other sentient dungeon within the city caught wind of their presence. The more Ruprecht could assimilate and learn from this ancient bastion of magic and knowledge, the more formidable he would be.

Not that Robin could blame him! He intended much the same thing, after all, though his part of the process didn’t require putting down such literal and metaphysical roots.

‘Well what are we waiting around for hen?’ Robin rose to his feet. ‘We have our plan! Let’s get to it so we can lure ourselves a mage!’