The Dramatic Dungeon - A Dungeon Core Story

The dinner at the Thorekson home was… lively. A little livelier than usual, with the hosts inviting some family friends and throwing a small party for our… party. All in all, it was an enjoyable experience.

We then split up to rest for the night and agreed to gather again at the break of dawn to get a little sparring session in with our new gear, hopefully after getting our long awaited appraisal.

I am strangely not as excited for it as I probably should be, but I suppose the giddiness has somewhat worn off by now. Also, I am certain it will be good, whatever it turns out to be.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I am the first to arrive at our designated meeting point, a twisted and gnarled tree along the main road which bisects the town east to west. It stands next to a dilapidated little shop that used to sell potions, but has been standing empty for some time now, likely due to the limited amount of demand for their products while most every sponsored adventurer is off to the wall. The Kingdom of Areios always has a need of able bodies to keep the devils and their necromantic monstrosities at bay while the Bone Devil King’s enchantment is strongest, after all.

Before my thoughts can spiral further down that pit, which my most recent confrontation with father brought to the fore once more, the first of my comrades arrives. It is Allea, sauntering up the quiet streets with a confident gait, giving me a small wave as she draws near. I nod in response, and let a smile grace my lips as I inspect her new gear. A green cloak with a wide hood covers much of the well-worn but well maintained leather armor she always had, and a new pair of knee-high leather boots finishes the look of a competent and dangerous ranger. The cloak's color and texture subtly shift and phase making her blend into surroundings easier, while the boots muddle the noise of her steps and prevent footprints from appearing.

“Have a good rest?” I greet her.

She bobs her head, and leans up against the tree, before eyeing me and asking “Yourself?”

“Absolutely. It's great to sleep in a proper bed for once. Any bets on who’s gonna be next?”

“Kallion. But it’s no bet, I could hear his stupid stick slamming on the street a block down.”

“Damn. Impressive as always.”

She merely shrugs and settles in for a short wait.Kallion appears within minutes, wearing fresh robes with a defensive enchantment and some leather pauldrons, gauntlets and greaves for additional protection. Astrid follows soon after, wearing her same old armor, but sporting a new axe, the edge of which dimly glowed in an ominous crimson light.

Finally united, we make our way to my fathers store and are shuffled off to one of the private rooms in the back immediately, where we meet with his Appraiser, a young beastkin by the name of Miria. She is a divination-focused mage classer and started working here some years back.

“Sooo, what do you all have for me? Your first piece of loot? That's so exciting!” Miria practically pounces on us as she enters, her canine tail swishing animatedly as she talks.

“It’s this mask. We got it from a new Dungeon, out in the Belt. Can you tell us its properties please?” I say as I defend myself from her assault and attempt to produce the item from my pack at the same time. This appeases her enough for me to pull out the item and gently hand it over to her, once again marveling at the craftsmanship as I do so.

“Okie dokie, no problemo! Take a seat, this will only be a moment!” She says before her face scrunches up in intense focus as essence begins to flow all around us. I notice Kallion watching with great interest as Miria skillfully draws a chalk circle on the small table in the middle of the room and places the mask inside. She adds several runes and directs the essence of her ritual, baring her fangs at the effort. The circle begins to glow and slowly, glowing sigils begin to emerge from the mask that slowly float towards Miria’s face and enter her forehead. Her wolf-like ears twitch a little as her brow creases, and with a flash, the final sigil appears and disappears before the ritual goes still.

Everyone releases a breath I wasn’t even aware we were holding as Miria turns towards us with a bright smile.

“That is one crazy item you found there! Probably the first item the dungeon ever dropped, with those specs, those are known to be special. Would you believe it, it has four properties! Four! On top of the basics! And one of them I can’t even really make sense of. Oh, uhm, right, I should go in order. So, from the top, the Goddess calls this item a “Mask of Comedy''. It has illusion and transmutation affinities as well as supernatural toughness and self regeneration, this thing is hard to destroy for anything below tier 3. Not impossible, but hard. That's all pretty standard. Next up, it has some voice enhancement. Specifically, it lets you change your voice illusory at will, as well as enhancing the powers of any voice based skill used. Should be a relatively minor increase. That is property number one. Secondly, while worn, anyone that can hear the wearer gets a minor stamina buff and experiences heightened spirits and motivation. Thirdly, and this is a weird one, the mask can become invisible. While it is Invisible, you can disguise your face with an illusion, but that should be fairly draining on it and can’t be used for long. Oh, oh, I'm gonna have to report that to the Guild. You all should be fine though, it’s not on the level where the item has to be confiscated, since you are all Guild Members, it will just be noted somewhere I think.”

Still reeling from the verbal assault and trying to process all of the information, I manage to stammer out “Uhhh, what, what about the last one?”

“Oh, right, almost forgot! That one is… uhh… we call that a conditional transformation, I think? Basically, the item can become a different item under certain conditions, but I have no way of telling what those conditions are, or what the other item is or does. But it should not be harmful!”

“Right, right… Well, thank you, I suppose. Your fee…”

“Is paid for in full. Don’t worry about it. Gift from your dad!” She says with a wink, before remembering something as her face lights up again.

“Oh, before I forget, part of the items basic traits include its affinities, it has Illusion and Transmutation, which means that it is gonna be very hard to detect with any sort of magical detection, if you don't want it to be detected, and that it will change as you are wearing it, but that change should be very gradual, and strictly beneficial to the wearer. Now, I’m gonna file a report with the guild, but only about the face disguise, have fun with it! Oh, and congrats on your specialist skills, I heard from your father!”

With that final exclamation she was out of the room and off to elsewhere, leaving us all to grapple with what she just revealed.

I stared at the mask with a newfound awe as Astrid once again eloquently summarized all of our feelings at this point.

“What the fuck?”