The Dramatic Dungeon - A Dungeon Core Story

There are two kinds of criminals in the humanoid lands: the desperate and the insane. Cultists often fall into both categories, but generally it depends on what they worship. Devil worship is dangerous, yes, but there is a tangible benefit to be gained in a devil’s boons, no matter how heretical that sounds. Demon worship on the other hand is the domain of fools and monsters and if you ever encounter their cultists, put them down or run. Diplomacy will avail you naught. - Inquisitor Ernest, “Cults: Enemies within”

The mask still lies there, taunting me with its graceful smile.

I reach out slowly, after looking around at my party and receiving no pushback.

Taking it into my hands, I marvel once again at the smooth surface and superior craftsmanship. With trepidation I raise it to my head and put it on. It is fastened to my face with a leather strap, and the eye-holes are small and restrictive, but as soon as I wear it fully, the sensation disappears entirely and it is as if I wasn’t even wearing it at all.

Wordlessly, Allea produces a handheld mirror and hands it to me.

Inspecting myself, I look quite strange wearing it in combination with my plate armor neck down. Thinking that, the mask on my face begins to shimmer, and then vanishes. I look up at my friends and grin.

“Well, now you will have to see my ugly mug all the time instead of that stuff helmet. You poor sods.” I quip.

“You can change it though, according to Miria. And your grating voice as well.” Allea bites back, causing me to clutch at my chest in mock hurt.

“Right, right, I guess we should figure out how that works. Let’s see…”

Like a skill, I know how to activate the effects instinctively, though not with any amount of precision.

As is apparent when my voice comes out as a squeak instead of what I attempted to say. Amidst the laughter of my comrades I try again, this time only changing a slight bit, and it comes out as a higher pitched version of my own voice, which still sounds off.

“Well, this will take some training. Good thing the most important thing is the buff to voice skills and the party buff.”

“Right, we should head to the training yard and get used to our new skills, we can also test the effect of the buff there. And you can play around with that voice and face disguise later. It is not relevant for combat anyways.”

“Not super relevant, but the voice thing with my [Commanding Voice] could cause some confusion.”

We chatter and strategize as we make our way out of my father’s shop and onto the nearly empty streets of Aresmouth, then turn right and meander our way over to the Guild Headquarters.

Finding our way to a quiet training yard at the back, we all get our gear out and start to practice on the targets. All of our specialist skills are passive, so incorporating them into our fighting style is not much work, but there is some adjustment needed.

For example, Astrid's swings now generate small waves of glowing essence that cleave further than her axe would hit, which means we need to give her a bit of extra space to work.

The same goes for Kallion, who now exudes an icy mist while channeling his workings, which is very unpleasant and potentially harmful during prolonged exposure.

The biggest adjustment for me is to concisely phrase mid-battle calls as orders. That way my teammates will benefit from my latest skill acquisition when acting upon them.

I quickly figure out that it actually doesn't even depend on my phrasing, however, it is mostly based on tone of voice. So, some of my go to orders are going to be "Take it out!" and "Get out of there!", I think.

The training session and my theory crafting both get interrupted rather suddenly as a flying letter appears in front of me, barely dodging Astrid's swing at the dummy we had been flanking and an icicle from Kallion that whizzed past.

The letter stops midair and unfolds itself, before dropping into my hands.

"Looks like a summons to the Guild Master's office. I guess we will get that follow-up mission we have been informed of?"

"Allready?" Astrid groans.

"Most likely. Let's not keep her waiting." Kallion agrees.

We begin packing up our gear and leave the training yard. As we make our way into the main building, I notice how quiet and empty it is inside the hallways. Even during off season, this is atypical. I wonder what is going on, but I'm not left with much time to do so as we approach the Guild Master’s office.

We knock and after a short wait the door swings open and we are beckoned inside by the woman at the desk, who is joined inside already by three people. There is a dwarf in mud brown wizard robes with an elaborately braided beard, a young human woman in leather armor, and an older looking male human wearing heavy armor under a small priestly overcoat. His goddess-symbol necklace marks him as a divine spellcaster, but he is likely a paladin of some kind based on his armor and weaponry, as a sword and shield adorn his belt and pack respectively.

“Come in, come in, we have been expecting you.”, the Guild Master greets us. “Meet your new best friends for a couple weeks, the survey team.”