It was, in no uncertain terms, an unmitigated disaster. For thoroughness, they had tested glass, wooden, and paper containers. All of them dissolved into unexpected and unpredictable magical effects. They even tried to move a small sample of the stuff with Drev’s force magic, with the mage conjuring a shallow disc of force to carry the liquid across the intervening space.

The result of that particular experiment nearly killed them all. The magic absorbed the force magic and, well, exploded, scattering splashes of raw, unadulterated magic across the cavern, which reacted with the stone to set of a chain of random magical effects.

Robin was still trying to wring the watery flan from his hair. The stuff was somehow resistant to his cleansing magics! Honestly. It wasn’t worth it.

So he said as much.

‘We’re running out of time. We need to move on to the next option.’ Robin flicked away a gobbet of congealed caramel.

‘I suppose you’re right,’ Drev said with a sigh. ‘We’re not making any progress towards dissolving that barrier, are we. Though we have learned quite a lot about the nature of magical resonance.’ The mage brightened.

‘So our next objective is what? Escape or investigation of the final node on Red’s map?’ Vance framed the question, but it was clear the librarian preferred the more exploratory option.

Maniac.

Though Robin agreed. They were this close now. The thought of coming back here after escaping once? The very idea strained his belief in all the luck deities in this and his own universe.

‘Investigate,’ Jhess said.

‘Agreed,’ Savra chimed in.

‘Looks like it’s unanimous,’ Robin said.

‘You didn’t let me vote,’ Drev protested, ‘and Vance hasn’t said which he actually prefers!’

‘Please,’ the bard responded, ‘as if it isn’t obvious? The two of you are so thirsty for knowledge I’m surprised you didn’t try to move the water by drinking it down and pissing it out on the stone later.’

Drev paused, mouth open, a calculating look on his face.

‘No!’ Jhess said. ‘Don’t even think about it.’

The things people were willing to do for knowledge. Or power. Robin suppressed a grin.

There was no question of how valuable discovering what had happened in Tarin-Tiran was. Someone would pay for the knowledge. But aside from that it was a puzzle, a mystery, and that interested the whole party—not just Robin, who had a mysterious quest linked to discovering more about this place.

That left the approach.

‘Natural or worked stone tunnel?’ Robin asked. ‘Either one could do it, with the caveat that we have no idea how this dungeon has twisted up the passageways.’

‘They both head off in the right direction,’ Jhess said. ‘Found a few traps along each length. I went ahead and disabled them, in case we needed to make a fast exit for any reason.’

A wave of irritation and pride came from Robin’s familiar.

Yes, Rerebos, I know you helped as well. The whole party does.

The cat began purring from his perch on Robin’s shoulder.

‘And what will be the deciding factor?’

That began a debate. The party was split as to which way was the better bet. Savra consulted her coin, but aside from confirming that they should definitely not proceed down the ornate stone passageway, it did little to confirm which of the other two passages was preferable. Both ways offered good and bad omens in messy, near-equal measure.

Robin was so absorbed in the discussion that it took him too long to notice the surreal mist that had begun rising from the pool of distilled magic.

‘Oh that cannot be good,’ he said, pointing to it. ‘Considering what it does when it touches things, I suspect we need to make a hasty exit, now.”

‘Which way?’ Jhess asked, already moving.

It was clear that the rogue had no interest in any more research and testing.

‘Natural stone,’ Drev said.

‘I still think the worked stone passage is more likely,’ Vance argued.

‘Boys, boys!’ Robin chided. ‘You’re both very smart and very insightful. However we no longer have time to debate. It’s one or the other.’

‘Natural stone,’ Savra said, looking at the coin in her hand.

‘Another divination?’ Drev asked with interest.

‘No,’ the seeress replied. ‘I just assigned one side of the coin to each way and flipped it. Complete randomness.’

‘That’s one way to do it,’ Robin said. ‘You heard the lady! Let’s get moving! Natural stone.’

The party made a beeline for the passage, the fog nipping at their heels the whole way. Strange sounds and lights came from inside the fog, but nothing the Robin could quite make out. Nothing he was willing to linger behind and see.

Though a small voice at the back of his mind asked why the fog wasn’t causing more wild magic surges, if it was spread so thin. How was any of this place still standing? Though maybe it was just the nature of the enchanted pools and the stone in this area. The dungeon could have enchanted it somehow? He didn’t know enough about wild magic.

But the rising fog was awfully convenient, somehow.

And wasn’t that what he did when he used illusions? Make them amorphous, dangerous, something no sane person would want to test? They were in a city of illusion, which had spawned a living dungeon somehow. There were all manner of possibilities.

But the voice wasn’t so loud that Robin paused to investigate. No, he kept pace with the rest of the group and headed for the designated passageway.

As soon as they passed through, Drev used a disc of force to block the entryway. It wasn’t a proper wall, but he could angle it enough that hopefully it would keep the fog from rolling in after them.

Hopefully they were far enough down the tunnel when the fog hit that whatever wild magic resulted, it wouldn’t kill them all. It was a calculated risk, but Jhess had already discovered several traps. They couldn’t afford to run from the fog head on into a hidden deadfall or pit trap.

‘This place is vicious,’ Jhess said.

Robin sent Rerebos to help scout ahead. They’d need all the help they could get!

‘Any sign of the fog hitting the shield?’ he called to Drev.

‘I haven’t felt the spell warp or vanish,’ the mage replied, ‘and we haven’t been hit with a wave of lemmings made of cheese or anything, but it’s hard to say.’

I would like to eat a cheese lemming!

Rerebos was very interested in that idea.

Toasty… he all but hissed in Robin’s mind.

‘I can see some fog tendrils,’ Vance shouted. ‘It’s still flowing after us, but there’s a lot less of it. And it seems to be moving more slowly.’

‘It’s still coming though,’ Drev complained. ‘And why didn’t it react with my force disc?’

Robin would like to know the answer to that as well. He almost asked Jhess to toss another dagger in, but realised what the rogue would probably say.

So he pulled a pebble out of his dimension storage and carefully chucked it at the next tendril of fog he could see behind them.

Nothing.

He tried again.

This time the pebble erupted into a small burst of grey maggots. They immediately fell to the stone and began burrowing into it. Robin shivered. Imagine what they might do to flesh!

‘It looks like when its diffuse like this it doesn’t react as much or as severely.’

‘No studying,’ Jhess bellowed from where she was disarming a trap just ahead of the rest of the party. ‘We want to lose the stuff, not give it a chance to catch up.’

‘Is the tunnel still heading the way we need it to?’ Savra asked, ever practical.

Robin consulted the map and the notes he’d been keeping in his head.

‘So far, yes,’ he replied. ‘Though shout if you notice any sharp turning coming up.’

‘Drev should play rearguard, as his force disc might be our best advance warning of a fog increase,’ Vance said. ‘I’ll cover Jhess as she scouts. Savra, Robin, take the centre positions and back us up and keep us in contact.’

‘On it,’ Robin said.

Savra nodded.

The party made its way down and down the tunnel, covering ground quickly when they could, pausing every so often to allow Jhess to deal with a trap.

‘Nothing to complex yet,’ the rogue said with satisfaction. ‘We can’t be going too much deeper in, at this rate. Things would be getting much worse if we had.’

Robin confirmed that against the mental map in his head.

‘We should be over halfway there by now,’ he called out.

Robin didn’t like how few branches the tunnel had had so far, but as it was still generally running in the direction they needed it to go, he supposed he shouldn’t complain.

But it made him feel like something was—

‘Guys,’ Jhess called, ‘I think we have company!’

The rogue pointed ahead of them. Robin followed where she was pointing. There was a pale figure standing there, in the shadows. Though the darkness was no match for Robin’s sight, the figure remained hazy and indistinct.

More ghosts? Not unusual in a ruined city that saw a lot of violent death. More illusions? Not unheard of in Tarin-Tiran.

Robin tried to look through Rerebos’s eyes. His familiar was substantially closer to the apparition that he was, closer even than Jhess was. Then he swore, causing the party around him to all recenter their attention on their bard.

There was mist swirling about the apparition’s feet, and a whole bank of fog billowing behind it!

They were trapped between two fog banks!