Worthy Core

DAY 772

One benefit of local omniscience - you never need someone to tell you when one of your friends has just stopped by. Even before Beatrice had stepped into the shortcut portal outside the dungeon entrance Xenia had noticed the arrival of her friend, and as soon as the warrior teleports into the Fiver's Lounge her host is there to meet her. True, it's as a ghostly, orange-tinted figure, due to the fact that Beatrice can only see Xenia thanks to her enchanted helmet, but at least the smile waiting for her is a friendly one.

"Beatrice! You're back! Pretty early though, right? I thought you'd be traveling until winter came around, and we're not even done with summer yet."

Beatrice grins back beneath her helmet, but her response is a tired one. "Yeah, something came up. Ended up having to swing back by here a bit earlier than expected, and in a bit of a rush. At least the mountain crossing isn't so bad while it's still warm out."

Xenia's smile turns into a frown, unused at seeing her friend so business-like on a greeting. "...Sounds like there's trouble, then. Wanna grab a drink and tell me about it?"

"Absolutely. Although..." The slayer glances back and forth across the lounge, examining the occupants within. It's late afternoon, so not peak hours for the place just yet, but there's always a few Challengers about these days. "Maybe we could grab a private room, if you have one? Maybe grab Sincere too if he's not busy, there's some questions that might need answers."

"Oh? Like asking your boyfriend if he's had any hot dates lately?" The reincarnator attempts to lighten the mood, but it's a quick failure going by the lack of even a chuckle in response. "...Right. Think he's just writing letters or something right now, I'll have him swing by in a moment. Take the...number four portal ring over by the wall there, and I'll see you in a minute?"

Beatrice nods before Xenia's form pops, and she makes her way over through the designated portal. It takes her to a chamber that could serve as either a private dining room or a conference area depending on the setup, but the counter set to one side is empty of refreshments for the moment. Or at least, it is until a mug of cold beer suddenly appears on a tray, and this time Beatrice does allow herself a slight laugh as she picks it up.

She's only sat down at the main table for a minute before Sincere makes his own appearance, and Xenia pops into the room right after him. As Xenia takes her spot at the head of the table, Sincere greets the returning hero with a brief hug. "Ah, it's good to see you again, as always! You're healthy? It sounded as if there were an urgent issue of some sort."

"Good to see you too, Sincere. I did get into a bit of a scrap, was kind of a close one for a minute there, but fortunately I came through alright. Tassa and Janey too. But...there was a little issue about it that had us coming over here to see you."

Xenia raises an eyebrow. "Oh, 'us'? Your team finally swung around to Grassbrook? Didn't see anyone else with you, though."

"They're visiting some...acquaintances in town right now. I wanted to come right by and see you, though. So, I'll get right down to it." Beatrice leans over the table, and claps her gloved hands together. "The girls and I were on our way to try out Highlight Mountain, a Valleylands dungeon, when something went wrong. Something which the army-types around there are connecting to you."

There's looks of confusion on both Xenia and Sincere's faces, but Sincere speaks up first. "Highlight Mountain? I know it only by name - and we've certainly done nothing involving it to my knowledge."

"Right, they're not suspecting, like...an active connection. But...look, it's like this. We were queued up to take our turn at the place, halfway up the mountain with a bunch of other Challengers, when suddenly nearly every damn floor guardian in the place swarmed out of the dungeon's front door and started claiming heads. Final count, as I heard it, was that it killed eleven Challengers and seven Valleylands army soldiers. Could've been worse though. If they'd come out at a time when there weren't a bunch of armed combat-junkies waiting just outside, and gotten out into the village or farmland? There were enough monsters there to kill hundreds of civilians."

Xenia's face screws up in a mixture of horror and anger. "What!? Why the hell would it do that? And why the hell would anyone connect that to me?"

"...I think I can see the logic, actually." Sincere raises a finger in the air. "Because, until now, we were the only dungeon capable of sending floor guardians outside of the dungeon. While we've limited it to one at a time, and obviously only for peaceful purposes, our capacity to do so would be..."

He tilts his head towards Xenia, who supplies the answer. "Between the elementals and the people staying in the hotel rooms, we'd actually be able to send every guardian outside at once if we wanted to. Would leave us pretty damn vulnerable, though. Shit, did they core-crack Highlight for doing it? If it'd lost every guardian in a fight..."

Beatrice shakes her head. "Not when I left town, at least. Highlight Mountain's a pretty well-established place, I think they wanted to do an investigation first. Besides, it'd still be a lot of floors to clear to get to the core, and there was no one fresh enough or high-tier enough to do it when I left. I don't know what's happened since then, though. Been about a week and a half, since."

Sincere rubs his chin. "I see. Well, the warning is certainly appreciated, but did you really come all this way just for that? A message service wouldn't have been that much slower - not that I don't enjoy seeing you, of course."

The warrior smirks. "Likewise. But no, I'm not just here as a friendly warning. I was actually requested to come by a Valleylands army commander - me and the others. Because he was actually hoping that you would help out with the investigation."

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"Eh? Why am I gonna start hopping in line just because some general..." Xenia trails off as her thoughts begin to catch up with her. "...Oh. They think the Dragonlord is involved in this somehow."

"From what Tassa told me about the guy in charge, apparently he's known for being a little paranoid about Dragonlord plots." Beatrice waggles a hand. "But he's apparently also known for being right more often than not. Now, I'm not doing this to ask you to help the Valleylands...although I should probably mention up front that they did pay us to come out here. But because if the Dragonlord's involved, it might be something you want to look into. Also, if you need help, I'd rather be in the area if trouble's coming."

Xenia's ghostly avatar leans back into her seat as she thinks for a while. "...I do have some other stuff I've been meaning to talk to them about. And I do have a sort of line to them. Just...been putting it off cause I'd rather not have more of their attention than I already do. But yeah, I think this probably calls for it. If folks are dying, then other folks are gonna start getting stabby, and I need to know what the fuck is going on."

Sincere nods in agreement. "Is there anything else we can do in the meanwhile?"

Xenia snorts. "Yeah - don't go spreading this around just yet. If people start thinking the dungeon might go wild that could cause a panic with the customers, and I don't want people worrying that we might turn hostile. Hopefully it'll still take a couple weeks for anyone else to get the message about what went down..."

As Alizz sits at her desk in the Grassbrook Challengers Association headquarters, she finds herself surprised to find her entire inspection team making their way through her office door. Sely and Renter come in first, followed by Ruckus, and as he brings up the rear Kelsey closes the double doors behind him. "Ah, yes? We don't have a team meeting scheduled for this afternoon, is something wrong?"

Sely nods as some of the others begin taking seats. "Apparently so. We got a letter today. A red envelope letter. I had Kelsey round up the rest of the inspection team before we came to find you."

Ruckus looks more confused than anyone else in the room. "Yeah, and in such a rush too that no one bothered explaining to me why the color of the envelope fuckin' matters. Doubt there's much that would affect me, right?"

His answer is the widened eyes on Alizz's face. "...A red envelope? Apologies for not mentioning this to you before - and perhaps you as well, Renter. It's rarely used, but signifies an extremely urgent matter of Association business. For example..."

"A decision from HQ that a dungeon needs to be core-cracked, for example." Kelsey frowns as he finishes the explanation, and Ruckus nearly falls out of his chair.

"What!? That can't be it, right?"

"I certainly hope not - but hand it here, Sely, and let's find out." The cleric hands over the colored envelope, and Alizz wastes no time in opening it and reading through its contents. After a quick skim, she begins to summarize it for the rest of the group.

"...Association headquarters has received reports of a major incident at Highlight Mountain. Reportedly nearly every floor guardian in the dungeon escaped its bounds and went on a small rampage. Nearly a dozen Challengers died before it was beaten back, with support from local army forces."

Kelsey blinks before responding. "That's...that's never happened before, right? I mean...Worthy can send its guardians outside, but they don't rampage."

"Yes. But you're not the only one to make that connection. Headquarters is worried about the capability of Worthy Dungeon doing the same...and will be sending the Scarlet Eagles to investigate and...help secure the region if required."

Kelsey groans, but this time it's Renter who seems most confused. "Eh? Ain't ever heard of these 'Scarlet Eagle' folks - who in the hells is that supposed to be?" The kobold answers the question for him.

"They're core-crackers."

"Among other things." Alizz glares at her assistant before continuing. "They're one of the Association's heavy-hitter teams. All of them are Supreme-tier in level. That means that they're one of the teams called in to do assignments like core-cracking, but they're also called in for any other high-risk task."

"So...what?" Ruckus looks around at the rest of the group. "They'll show up, see that Worthy ain't sending attacks on the town, and go home?"

"If all goes well, we can only hope. I just hope word of this doesn't spread too far and create a panic among the Challengers..."

Gilda is halfway through enjoying a light dinner with her husband, finishing a delightful salad, when their meal is rudely interrupted by the sound of the dining room door flying open. The half-elf looks up with a glare, ready to tear into some clumsy maid, but her expression changes to one of concern when she sees who it is who interrupted their meal.

"Sweet? Is there something the matter?"

"I would say so, my lady. We just received a letter via Dire Bat courier." The giant gnoll holds up the letter in question, and Gilda furrows her brow as she sees it.

"Dire Bat? Are you sure - no, my apologies, of course you're sure. Foolish question. But what could it be..."

Sitting next to her, Raylin seems to be even more confused than she is. "I'm aware that tamed Dire Bats can be used for high-priority deliveries, but I don't think we were expecting anything?"

"No - unless the kingdom is suddenly at war, or perhaps my father - " Gilda shakes her head before focusing on what's in front of her. "Best not to catastrophize. Let us see what it actually has to say before we get...overly concerned."

Sweet hands over the letter, and Gilda sets aside her utensils to open it. As she reads through it, her frown only continues to grow. Eventually Raylin has to prod his wife with a question in order to regain her attention. "Gilda? Is something wrong?"

"...Possibly. Apparently our spies have reported that a dungeon went wild in the Valleylands, sending its guardians out into the open and killing several dozen before it was contained again. There's reports that the Valleylands army believes this is connected to Worthy Dungeon, as it was previously unique in the ability to send guardians beyond its borders."

Raylin scratches the back of his head on hearing the news. "...Okay? That is terrible news, but why the urgency? What do they expect you - us - to do about it? It seems exceedingly unlikely that Worthy somehow triggered an attack in the Valleylands from here."

Gilda shakes her head. "The Valleylands apparently suspects Dragonlord involvement, and therefore father is concerned that the Dragonlord may also have renewed interests in this region. Therefore...he is sending my sister along with our family's most powerful retainers to 'preserve our interests'."

"...Well." Raylin sighs and shakes his head. "It would be nice to see Silva again, but I'm not sure what use a few warriors and mages will be to us."

"Not just any warriors and mages." His wife chuckles. "If these are our 'finest', then that likely means he's called in a few favors - especially if the kingdom as a whole is concerned about this. We're told to prepare accommodations for Supreme-tier Challengers and other associates."

"...That will certainly cause waves in this small little community. Here's hoping it's a short visit and we don't need to cause any alarm, hrmm?"

"We can only hope..."