Among its other dungeon-related duties, the Adventurer's Guild of Arvenne was responsible for gathering, maintaining, and spreading information about the kingdom's dungeons. Generally speaking, this extended to spreading the news about newly discovered ones. When it came to deviants, though, they became rather tight-lipped. Most adventurer's guilds were somewhat reticent about newly-discovered deviants, and the Arvenne Guild's leadership was more risk-averse than most. In their ideal world, the dungeon would be thoroughly surveyed by experts before anyone else so much as set foot inside.
But there was only so much they could do to stem the tide. They'd brought a half dozen teams of well-known veterans to explore the new dungeon, and adventurers who kept their ears to the ground were bound to notice. Rumors were spreading about a new dungeon somewhere in the kingdom. Meanwhile, alchemists were hearing stories about a huge new source of low-grade life essence in the Western Ardren Mountains.
Inevitably, people were starting to put the pieces together.
When Greppa and Sten found the little settlement, it was just barely beginning to graduate from "overgrown campsite" to "frontier outpost". Someone had knocked together a couple of rough-finished bunkhouses, and some packmules were resting in a small paddock attached to an equally small stable. A larger but still half-finished building was nearby, along with a tarp over a field kitchen suggesting it was intended to be an inn. Elsewhere, tents still dominated.
Sten was a gnomish champion, blond, muscled, and remarkably clean-cut for a man who'd been marching through the mountains for days. He grinned and elbowed his partner affectionately in the thigh. "And you were worried we wouldn't beat the rush."
"Yeah..." Greppa shook her head. Brown-haired and swarthy, she was the rogue of their little party. "Might almost have the opposite problem. I was looking forward to a real bed."
"Think of the loot, though! Hardly any competition at all!"
That was, after all, why they'd come all this way. The upper floors of most dungeons were picked clean almost as fast as they could respawn, and the two of them weren't strong enough to handle the less crowded floors farther down. This dungeon obviously wouldn't have that problem.
They continued up the freshly-cut trail in silence for a while longer, until they reached the settlement. The bunkhouses were, unsurprisingly, full, so they found an unclaimed clearing to set up camp in.
Greppa set her pack down next to Sten's and turned to him. "I'll get us set up here. Why don't you figure out which of these tents is the guild rep's?"
Sten, who had a much harder time setting up their human-sized tent, agreed easily. After a moment's thought, he went straight for the biggest tent in sight.
The voices from inside seemed to confirm his guess.
"Completely. We won't be mapping that branch without some serious underwater mobility gear."
"Talk to Gaven's team. They're finding a lot of water-themed loot in the swamps. What about mapping, though?"
"Not a problem, actually. Turns out the pens are waterproof."
"Huh. That's handy. Any other surprises?"
"Nah, that covers it. See you at dinner?"
"Yeah, see you then."
A dwarf in muddy leather armor emerged from the tent, and Sten took that as his cue to enter. Most of the tent was taken up by tables and desks, all covered in parchment. Kreen was sitting at one of the larger tables with a set of drafting tools, preparing to copy some new information from one set of maps to another.
"Is this the, ah, acting guild hall?"
Kreen looked up and scowled. "Barely. We're still trying to get the inital survey done, and this place is not ready for the rank and file. I suggest you come back later."
Sten's eyes widened at the apparent dismissal. "Hey, you can't tell me where to go!"
Kreen's frown deepened, but the gnome was right - he had no such authority. "That's why it's advice. You want to get yourself killed, I can't stop you."
"Excuse me? We might not be deep-diving elites, but we can take care of ourselves. What makes you think we can't?"
"In a normal dungeon, sure. But this is a deviant. You ever worked a deviant before?"
Sten's face was a picture of indignation as he replied. "And so what if we haven't?"
Kreen sighed and pulled a map from a nearby rack, then spread it on the table in front of him. "Deviants don't play by the rules. They always have weird new surprises, and we don't know everything this one has up its sleeves yet. This is the map of the first floor. You see this here?"
He jabbed a meaty finger at a symbol on the map that Sten had never seen before.
"Sometimes, there's a secret door there. The damn things move. They lead to hidden treasure rooms, and usually also an ambush."
Then he unrolled another map.
"This is the third floor. Burrowing monsters will come straight out of the walls to ambush you."
He gestured at a map that was already open on the other side of the table. It was clearly a work in progress.
"That's the fifth floor. Every monster on that floor flies, which is why they don't care that there are spiked pit traps all over the damn place."
Kreen turned his glare back to Sten. "The teams we've got mapping this place are deep-diving elites, and every one of them has had a close call or three. And that's just on the first five floors! Borrin and his team just breached the sixth floor today, and they found a branch that's completely underwater. This is the weirdest damn dungeon I've ever heard of, and in this business, weird means dangerous."
Sten's expression had softened slightly, but he was clearly in no mood to back down. "Well I appreciate your concern," he bit out. "Now if you will give me a set of maps, I'll be on my way."
Kreen shook his head, but Sten was well within his rights, and they both knew it. "Have it your way. You'll have to copy them yourself, though. We don't have a copyist here yet."
"What?"
The next morning, Sten and Greppa were chatting with another party at the dungeon entrance as they checked their gear.
"Ah, don't hold it against him. It's his job to worry." Gaven, as it turned out, was a remarkably tall human druid, black-haired and black-bearded. He and his party had been mapping the swamp branch on the fourth floor, and they had the dried mud to prove it.
Greppa nodded as she checked the throwing knives in her bandoleer. "It's not as bad as he says, then?"
Gaven winced slightly. "Well, I wouldn't go that far. This place is a bit of a nightmare. It's worth it though. Lots of loot, and we've found some stuff here I've never even heard of. Anise picked up an amulet that turns her into a mermaid when she's in the water!"
"Huh. Any advice, then?"
Gaven thought about it for a moment. "Well, we haven't hit any really dangerous surprises above the third floor. Don't go down there, and you're probably okay."
Sten, who was fastening his greaves, spoke up at that. "Just two floors? Doesn't leave us much, does it?"
"Ah, just till we're wise to the dungeon's tricks. Don't go rushing into anything you don't understand and you'll be fine."
"Fair enough," Greppa cut her partner off with. Shortly thereafter, Gaven and his party entered the dungeon, and Greppa and Sten were looking over their map of the first floor.
"I'm thinking we see about these secret treasure rooms," Sten said as he traced out a route with his finger. "Even if we do get ambushed, they're first floor goblins. We can handle it."
That seemed sensible to Greppa, and the pair of them set off. The first room they reached was on the path to the stairs down, and so it had already been cleared out. From there, though, they went left where the exploring parties went right.
Wordless goblin noises were coming from behind the next door they found, so they approached quietly. Sten counted down with three fingers, then kicked down the door and burst into the room, hurling himself at the nearest goblin and carving its lungs out with his sword. Behind him, Greppa launched a pair of knives into a second goblin's eye and stomach. Both fell as the other four howled and drew their weapons.
Two of the goblins came at Sten with shortspears while a third, carrying a shield and mace, tried to circle around him to get at Greppa. The last raised a horn to his lips and blew out a single note, then charged Sten as he batted a spear aside and lunged at its owner, burying his sword in its ribcage.
Greppa launched another knife at the goblin approaching her, and then another, but the monster caught them with its shield and kept coming. Sten pulled his sword from the goblin and moved to intercept, but the other spear-carrier stepped in his way and thrust its weapon at him. Sten blocked easily, but it cost him a few precious moments.
Greppa cursed and drew her own shortsword, dodging to the side as the charging goblin brought its mace down. She tried to counter with a swing at its head, but it parried with its shield. Sten, meanwhile, had slipped past his opponent's speartip and smashed it to the ground with his shield, but then had to turn to face the last goblin, which had been trying to flank him and put a dagger in his back. He stepped back and brought a foot down on the spear-carrier's face as he raised his sword to his last foe. That goblin charged, as Greppa's foot lashed out and tripped her own opponent.
That, unfortunately, was when four more goblins arrived from a side passage, one of them mounted on a wolf. It charged at Sten even as the gnome speared the dagger-wielder and then finished the goblin on the floor. Two of the others stayed back and threw heavy darts at Sten, one of which struck his arm, but it did nothing much through his chainmail and gambeson. Greppa quickly stabbed her own downed opponent and returned fire, killing one. Then, seeing another horn on the last newcomer, she put a knife it its throat.
Sten raised his shield and stepped to the right, blocking the rider's spear and evading its mount, then pivoted and slashed at the wolf's flank as it tried to turn. It yelped in pain and leapt to the side, unseating the rider. Another dart flew over his head at Greppa, but she easily sidestepped and put another pair of knives in the wolf's head, bringing it down. Sten brought his sword down on the fallen rider, then turned to the last goblin just in time to see one of Greppa's knives sink into its heart.
With no more enemies in sight, Sten let out a deep breath, and then a short laugh. "What'd I tell you? First floor goblins, no problem."
Greppa let out a breath of her own, then started collecting her knives. "Yeah, no real threat there. Still, did they seem a little smarter than usual to you?"
Ooh, new adventurers! And they're not all super-strong like everyone else has been! One of my goblins finally got a hit in! I'm so excited! The goblins are so excited! Well, the goblins would be excited if they could get excited, anyway. Are the adventurers excited? I hope they're excited.
This is going to be so much fun! And maybe I'll finally get to kill someone!
